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ADVERTISEMENT. 

fnj BEGAN to write this little book, while 
Pastor of the VTestminster Presbyte- 
rian Church, Baltimore ; preaching as I 

% wrote. One or two passages as to their 

substance, and several as to their form, need 
this explanation. These memorials of a joy- 
ful ministry I have found it convenient and 
pleasant to retain, in rewriting everything 
with what pains I could bestow. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS 



OE, 



THE STORY 



A SIQHTLESS SINNER, 



HIS GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

REV. WILLIAM J. HOGE, 

IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINAEY, PBrNOE 
EDTVAED, VIRGINIA. 



NEW YORK:J 
SHELDON, BIAKEMAN & CO. 

No. 115 NASSAU STREET. 






JBS 2.4-5Z 
2>i ti<° 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 

for the Southern District of New York. 



TO 



lii/ge ilotg of tlje fart Ifesxts Cfcnsi, 

THIS HUMBLE ATTEMPT 

TO COMMEND TO SOULS IN BLINDNESS 



HIS GRACE AND POWER, 



BLIND BAR TIME US. 



MATTHEW'S ACCOUNT. 

xx. 29-34. 

And as they departed from Jericho a great multi- 
tude followed Him. And behold, two blind men 
sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus 
passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O 
Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude re- 
buked them, because they should hold their peace : 
but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, 
Lord, thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still, 
and called them, and said, AYhat will ye that I shall 
do unto you ? They say unto Him, Lord, that our 
eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on 
them, and touched their eyes : and immediately 
their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. 



8 BLIND BABTIMEUS. 

MARK'S ACCOUNT. 

x. 46-52. 

And they came to Jericho : and as He went out 
of Jericho with His disciples, and a great number of 
people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timseus, sat by 
the highway side begging. And when he heard 
that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, 
and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on 
me. And many charged him that he should hold 
his peace : but he cried the more a great deal, Thou 
Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood 
still, and commanded him to be called : and they 
call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good 
comfort, rise ; He calleth thee. And he, casting 
away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee ? The blind man said 
unto Him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And 
Jesus said unto him, Go thy way ; thy faith hath 
made thee whole. And immediately he received 
his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 9 

LUKE'S ACCOUNT. 

xviil 35-43. 

And it came to pass, that as He was come nigh 
unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side 
begging ; and hearing the multitude pass by, he 
asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus 
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, 
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they 
which went before rebuked him, that he should hold 
his peace : but he cried so much the more, Thou Son 
of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and 
commanded him to be brought unto Him : and when 
he was come near, He asked him, saying, What wilt 
thou that I shall do unto thee ? And he said, Lord, 
that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto 
him, Receive thy sight : thy faith hath saved thee. 
And immediately he received his sight, and followed 
him, glorifying God : and all the people, when they 
saw it, gave praise unto God. 



10 .BLIND BARTIMEUS 

THE FULL NARRATIVE, 

COMPILED FROM THE THREE EVANGELISTS. 

And they came to Jericho : and as He went out of 
Jericho with His disciples and a great number of 
people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by 
the highway side begging. And hearing the multi- 
tude pass by, he asked what it meant ; and they told 
him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And when 
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to 
cry out, and say, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me ! O Lord, Thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me !" And many — they which went be- 
fore — rebuked him, and charged him that he should 
hold his peace. But he cried the more, the more a 
great deal, " O Lord, Thou Son of David, have mercy 
on me !" 

And Jesus stood still, and called him. He also 
commanded him to be called, and even to be brought 
unto Him. 

And they call the blind man, saying unto him, 
" Be of good comfort ! Rise ! He calleth thee !" 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 11 

And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to 
Jesus. 

And when he was come near, Jesus asked him, 
saying, " What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ?" 
The blind man answered and said unto Him, " Lord, 
that I might receive my sight !" So Jesus had com- 
passion, and touched his eyes, and said unto him, 
" Keceive thy sight ! Go thy way : thy faith hath 
saved thee." 

And immediately he received his sight, and fol- 
lowed Jesus in the way, glorifying God. And all 
the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God. 





itttrffj&ttJtHfftu 

ATTHEW, Mark, and Luke all give 
this story, but with some variations. 
Indeed, there are two things which 
look like contradictions. In Luke we 



q> read that the miracle was wrought as 
Jesus was come nigh unto Jericho, while Mat- 
thew and Mark agree that it was as He went 
out of the city. Again, Matthew says two 
blind men were healed, while Mark and Luke 
speak of but one. 

Matthew Henry gives a very short answer 
to the second difficulty. " If there were two," 
he says, "there was one." In this he but ex- 
presses, in his quaint way, the well-known rule 
of interpretation that, where several historians 
narrate the same event, it is no contradiction 
for one to give incidents about which others 
are silent. If, indeed, the number is an es~ 
sential element in the narrative, it must be 
given with accuracy. If a general won a 
2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

battle with ten thousand men, lie would be a 
false historian who should say he won it with 
five thousand. But if one historian should 
tell us of a great captain's fighting two battles 
the same day, it would be no impeachment of 
his veracity, if another chronicler should tell 
us of but one of these battles. One might be 
so insignificant that it would be lost in the 
greatness of the other ; or it might not concern 
the special design of one of the narratives ; or 
any similar reason might prevail. And surely 
the number is not the great thing here. Christ 
healed such multitudes that, in any given case, 
it is a small matter to the gospel narrative 
whether He healed one or more. Amid the 
gracious prodigality of His miracles, there may 
well be a noble negligence, on the part of His 
biographers, as to the exact number He cured. 
The great thing is, that He healed at all mal- 
adies incurable by any power but divine. 
And one Evangelist might often have special 
reasons (as Mark, perhaps, in this case,) for 
relating only the more conspicuous and im- 
portant cure. Why should any one feel a dif- 
ficulty when Luke simply tells us that, when 



INTRODUCTION". 15 

Christ was near Jericho, He wrought so illus- 
trious a miracle as giving sight to a blind 
man ; and Mark, writing, perhaps, to some 
who would be especially interested to know 
this, says that " the son of Timeus, blind Bar- 
timeus" — a man widely known, it may be — on 
that day received his sight ; while Matthew 
tells us that, on that blessed day, two souls 
Were made glad by the healing word of Christ? 

Thus the seeming contradiction vanishes, 
and turns rather into a confirmation of the 
truth and independence of the narratives. An 
impostor would have avoided this. 

The other difficulty remains. Matthew and 
Mark say the cure was performed as He left 
the city ; Luke, as He came near it. How 
shall these statements be reconciled ? 

Several solutions have been proposed, of 
which I think the following is the best. 

One blind man cried to Christ as He was 
going into Jericho, but was not cured until, 
joining himself to a companion in blindness, 
they cried together to Him as He was leaving 
the city. Luke, however, having begun the 
narrative where the first man cried out, carries 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

it on to the end without interruption. All 
historians do this. They constantly relate 
events which run through months or even 
years, never breaking the thread of their nar- 
rative by even an allusion, meantime, to what- 
ever else is taking place. In this case ths story 
of the blind man begins on one side of the city, 
as Christ is going in, and ends on the other, as 
He is going out ; while in the city His visit to 
Zaccheus is to be related. 1 Now three courses 
are possible to the narrator. He may begin 
with what took place as Christ drew near the 
city ; and tell that story to its end, and then 
tell what occurred in the city. This is what 
Luke does. Or commencing with what began 
on one side of the city and ended on the other, 
he may suddenly check his narrative to tell 
of Zaccheus, and then go on again with his ac- 
count of the blind men. But this would sac- 
rifice our pleasure in the separate and undis- 
turbed beauty of each picture, merely to secure 
what Trench well calls a " painful accuracy." 
Or, finally, he may refuse to begin the first 
story until he comes where the most important 
1 Luke, xix. 1-10. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

part of it took place, namely, the actual heal- 
ing of the men, as Christ was leaving Jericho. 
This is what Matthew and Mark do. 

Like the other, this seeming discrepancy lies 
too much on the surface for the work of an 
impostor. He would have made his three nar- 
ratives harmonize more easily, lest any should 
reject them. If the Gospels were cunningly 
devised fables, there would be contradictions 
indeed, but not like these. They would not 
lie on the surface, readily detected, and avoided 
as readily ; but in the very depth and heart 
of things, hard perhaps to discern, and impos- 
sible to reconcile. Graining easy triumphs for 
a time, such narratives would be utterly over- 
whelmed at length. But true men write with 
an unconscious variety and naturalness, which 
looks at first like contradiction, but which, 
more closely questioned, gives out a deeper 
testimony for independence and integrity. 

I wish now to say something of the relation 
of Christ's miracles to things more purely spir- 
itual, that I may at once guard and justify the 

2 



18 INTBODTJCTIOSr. 

use I intend to make of the record of the heal- 
ing of blind Bartimeus. 

1. I do not suppose a double sense, as it is 
called, in which the words have, besides the 
obvious meaning which we would give them 
in other books, a hidden, spiritual meaning, 
which we must task our ingenuity to search 
out. This theory is without foundation, and 
opens a wide door for every fancy and heresy. 
The words have but one sense. They are 
simply a record of a miracle of healing. 

2. But the miracles of the New Testament 
are miracles of grace. They are not mere signs 
and wonders. Power is not their chief element. 
They are essentially redemptive, — works of 
God's forgiving and restoring love. They 
are not meant merely to astonish, much less to 
terrify. They bless, and curse not ; bringing 
no fire from heaven 1 but that which relumes 
the extinguished lamp of life ; and dealing 
with leprosy, blindness, and pain, only that 
they may drive them away. They are not 
even mere proofs of a divine mission. They 
do not, like the Magi, come from some far-off 

1 Luke, ix. 54-56. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

region, and having offered their incense to 
Christ, pass away again to be seen no more. 1 
They all speak the language of Canaan, 2 and, 
with heavenly tongue, bear witness that Jesus 
is the Son of God, 3 while, as sons, they have 
the freedom of His house, and abide with Him 
forever. 4 They prove His mission chiefly as 
they themselves are a part of it. They estab- 
lish His Messiahship by exemplifying it. To 
men doubting and perishing they bring heavy 
clusters from that Eshcol, whose reality and 
surpassing fruitfulness they would demon- 
strate. 6 

Ages ago, Augustine expressed this thought 
with much beauty. Speaking of the miracles, 
he says, " Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
is the Physician of our eternal health, and to 
this end He took the weakness of our nature, 
that our weakness might not last forever." 
And Trench finely calls them " miracles of 
the Incarnation, — of the Son cf God, who had 
taken our flesh, and taking would heal it." 
Thus is every miracle of Christ, as he says 

1 Mat, ii. 1, 11, 12. 2 l sa ., xix. 18. 3 John, v. 36 ; xx. 30, 31. 
4 John, viiL 35. 5 Numb., siii. 23. 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

again, " an index and prophecy of the inner 
work of man's deliverance." " In each of them 
the word of salvation is incorporated in an act 
of salvation." 

Sin has cursed not only man's soul but his 
body, 1 and there is a fearful analogy between 
the diseases, distortions, and ruins of the body, 
and the deformities and corruptions of the 
soul. Therefore when we see our Saviour 
manifesting His healing grace in repairing the 
ravages which the Destroyer has made on man's 
body, we can not fail also to have new and 
deeper insight into His redeeming work on 
man's spirit. And it would be wonderful, 
when this is so, if some of the records of these 
gracious healings should not be, throughout, 
aptest illustrations of a sinner's restoration by 
the power and grace of Jesus. 

3. Again, great principles are often contained 
in these narratives, which are of universal ap- 
plication. If we see that the vilest have free 
access to Jesus ; that He heals the wretched 
without price, of His own pure grace; that 
importunity ever gains its point; that every 

1 Gen., iii. 16-19. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

thing depends on faith ; that the largest faith is 
ever most applauded and most blessed ; that no 
disease is beyond His power ; that these and 
many such things are true in these miracles of 
bodily healing, then do we as surely know 
that we may rest confidently upon them, when 
we go to Him in the deeper unworthiness of 
sin, and with the more awful maladies of our 
souls! 1 

1 Mat., ix. 6, 35 ; Luke, viL 19-23. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 




11 And they came to Jericho ; and as He went out of Jericho 
with His disciples, and a great number of people, blind 
Bartimeus, the son of Tiraeus, sat by the highway side, 
begging." 

) HAT a sad sight is this ! 'A blind 
beggar sitting by the way side ! His 
clothes are tattered and filthy. His 
face is burned by many a sun, and 
browned by many a rude wind, and 
furrowed with many a wrinkle, making chan- 
nels for tears, and writing histories of sor- 
row. His hand still grasps his long staff, — ■ 
his only support and guide, as every morning 
he gropes his way from his hovel to his accus- 
tomed haunt on this high road to Jerusalem. 
He has taken his seat on the well-worn stone 
under the palm-tree, and now he waits patiently 



24 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

in the grateful shade for some passing trav- 
eler from whom he may ask an alms ; for on 
the chance pittance of charity he must live. 
Unhappy man, if he has a wife and children 
depending on this slender, precarious support ! 
More unhappy, if he must bear his dark life 
alone ! 

Is he man as God made him ? Is that the 
divine image ? Is he possessor and lord of the 
world ? Where is the dignity and might, the 
kingly dominion and grandeur of the earth's 
ancient ruler ? how changed, how fallen, 
how lost ! Poor Bartimeus, sad picture of all 
thy race ! In thee I see myself and every 
brother, in our estate of nature. Image of the 
unregenerate man, — blind, poor, a beggar, and 
helpless alike in wretchedness and ruin ! 

Shrink not, believer, this is what thou 
wast. Shrink not, unbeliever, this is what 
thou art. 

Nay, the redeemed friends of Jesus will not 
shrink. They have long been accustomed to 
gaze on this sad likeness of themselves, and 
being now the children of adoption through 
grace, they still gaze upon it to renew repent- 



BUND BARTIMEUS. 25 

ance and humility, and to adore Him who has 
changed it to joy and peace and eternal hope. 
And let all in whom Jesus Christ hath 
wrought no miracle of spiritual healing, look 
steadily on this picture, and hear the voice of 
God saying. Thou art the man I 1 

I . — H IS BLINDNESS. 

Bartimeus is blind. And what is that ? 
The eyes of his body are out. He sees no 
light, or color, or form. I do not say his mind 
perceives nothing, or his heart feels nothing. 
His wits may be keen and his affections lively. 
I only say his bodily eyes can not see. They 
are blind. 

And what is true of the eyes of his body, is 
true, sinner, of the eyes of your soul. He 
could not see the natural world, and you can 
not see the spiritual world. The eye of sense 
may be bright in you, and its vision clear. 
The eye of the mind may be bright in you, 
and its vision clear. But the eye of your 
soul has been put out. It is blind. 

1 2 Sam., xii. 7. 
3 



26 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

You see I speak of three kinds of blind- 
ness. The eye of the body may be out, and 
we have no name for the result but blindness. 
The eye of the intellect may be out, and we 
name the result idiocy. We say the man is a 
fool. The eye of the soul may be out, and 
God names the result wickedness. He calls 
the man a sinner. 

Think of Bartimeus. He rose this morning, 
and his wife blessed him, his children climbed 
his knees and kissed him. They ministered 
to his wants. They led him a little way by 
the hand. But he did not see them. He 
knew of them, but he could not behold them. 
Their smiles or beauty were nothing to him, — 
he was blind. 

Think of yourself, sinner. You rose this 
morning, and the eye of your heavenly Father 
looked upon you. His hand led you, His 
power guarded you, His goodness blessed you. 
But your soul did not see Him. A vague 
idea that God had done it all may have oc- 
curred to you, but it had no vividness. He 
was no blessed reality to you. You saw not 
the lineaments of a Father, — the loving eye, 



BLIND BABTIMEUS. 27 

the benignant smile. You saw nothing,— your 
soul was blind. 

Think again of Bartimeus. He went abroad, 
and the rich valley of the Jordan spread out 
before him. The stately palms rose toward 
heaven, and waved their feathery tops in the 
early breeze. Tke gardens of balsam were 
clothed in their delicate spring 1 verdure, and 
Jericho sat in the midst of these vernal glo- 
ries, deserving its name, — Jericho, the place 
of fragrance, deserving its frequent descrip- 
tion among the ancient writers, — the City of 
Palms. And high above all was the bine sky, 
bending over as if to embrace and bless so 
much, loveliness of earth ; and the great sun, 
filling earth and sky and balmy air with glory. 

But what was all this to Bartimeus? It 
might have been narrow and black for aught 
he could tell. It was an utter blank, a dread- 
ful gloom to him. All was night, black, black 
night, with no star. 

Why was it so to him, when to others it 
was splendor and joy ? Ah ! he was blind. 

1 For it was at this season that Christ was then going to 
Jerusalem. 



28 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Unregenerate man, think again of yourself. 
You went abroad this morning, on an earth 
once cursed, 1 as of old Jericho had been, 3 
but spared and blessed by redeeming mercy, 
even as Jericho was that day blessed by the 
presence and healing grace of Jesus. Around 
you, too, was spread a world of spiritual 
beauty. The walls, and bulwarks, and stately 
palaces of the city of our God were before 
you. The rose of Sharon, the lily of the 
valley, the vine, the palm, the olive, and the 
fig-tree all stood about you in the garden of 
the Lord. Through them flowed the river of 
life, reflecting skies more high and clear than 
the azure of summer mornings ever imaged, 
and lit to its measureless depth by a sun more 
glorious than ever poured splendor even up- 
on Eden, in our poor world's ancient prime. 
You walked forth amid all this beauty, and 
many saw it, — none perfectly, yet some very 
blessedly, — but you saw nothing. You see 
nothing now. Nay, you can not see it. Strain 
your blind soul as you will, you can not see 
it. What I have said of it seems to you but 

1 Gen., iii. 17, 18 ; Rom., viii. 20. 2 Josh., vi. It, 2a 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 29 

a phantasy and rhapsody, although I say it on 
the awful authority of God in His Holy Word, 
and the experience of unnumbered children of 
His, who are witnesses that what I say is true, 
and for their witness would dare to die. Why 
then do you not see it ? Ah ! the eye of the 
soul is out, — you are blind. 

I see a beautiful mother gaze anxiously on 
her babe. She is trying a fearful experiment. 
She stretches out her arms to it, beseeches it 
with loving looks, holds out sparkling jewels 
to it, and flashes them before its eyes in the 
very sunshine at the open window. But the 
little eyes move not, or move aimlessly, and 
turn vacantly away. And she cries out in 
anguish, " Oh my poor child is blind!" 

And now I understand why even tender 
children turn away from Christ, seeing no 
beauty in Him that they should desire Him, 1 
and caring nothing for all His smiles or tears, 
or offers of the rich jewelry of heaven. They 
see nothing of it all. They are blind, born 
blind. 

I have read of a man of old to whom God 

1 Isaiah, liii. 2. 
3* 



30 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

had given great might, for dignity and honor 
and the redemption of his enslaved country, 
who made unwieldy mirth for thousands of 
scoffing Philistines. He had come from grind- 
ing in their prison, where slaves were his mas- 
ters, and now he made sport in open day, 
while the uncircumcised triumphed and jeered. 
But he saw neither the dungeon nor the day, for 
they had put out his eyes, — Samson was blind. 

And now I understand how men can make 
themselves the slaves and scoff of devils, as 
they rattle their chains and dance in their fet- 
ters, and play the fool with the high powers 
God has given them for usefulness to their 
fellows, and their own glory, honor and im- 
mortality. In the daily drudgeries of mere 
worldly business, and the occasional levities 
of mere worldly amusement, they are alike 
represented by fallen and degraded Samson 
in. his blindness. 

I once saw a man walk along the edge of a 
precipice as if it were a plain. For any thing 
he knew, it was a plain, and safe. He was 
calm and fearless, not because there was no 
danger, but because he was blind. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 31 

And who can not now understand how men 
so wise, so cautious in most things, can go so 
securely, so carelessly, even so gaily on, as if 
every thing were safe for eternity, while snares 
and pit-falls are all about them, and death may 
be just at hand, and the next step may send 
them down the infinite abyss ! 0, we see it, 
we see it, — they are blind ! 

A blind man is more taken up with what 
he holds in his hand, than with mountains, 
ocean, sun, or stars. He feels this; but those 
he can neither touch nor see. 

And now it is plain why unconverted men 
undervalue doctrine, saying, that "it is no 
matter what a man believes, so his heart is 
right ;" that "one doctrine is as good as another, 
and for that matter, no doctrines are good for 
much;" and that " they don't believe in doc- 
trinal preaching at any rate." They, forsooth, 
they ! blind worms, pronouncing contemptu- 
ously of the stupendous heights and glories 
of God's revelation, where alone we learn what 
we are to believe concerning Him, and what 
duty He requires of us. 

It is plain too why they see no preciousness 



32 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

in the promises, no glory in Christ, no beauty 
in holiness, no grandeur in the work of re- 
demption ; why they make a mock at sin, 
despise God's threatening^, brave His wrath, 
make light of the blood of Christ, jest at 
death, and rush headlong on certain per- 
dition. They are blind. So the Scripture 
speaks. There are blind people that have 
eyes. 1 Having the understanding darkened, 
being alienated from the life of God, through 
the ignorance that is in them, because of the 
blindness of their heart. 2 So there is such a 
thing as heart-blindness, as well as blindness 
of the bodily eye. 

Unconverted men often say, " If these 
things are so, if they are so clear and great, 
why can not we see them ?" And there is no 
answer to be given but this, Ye are blind. 

" But we want to see them. If they are 
real, they are our concern as well as yours. 
Oh, that some preacher would come, who had 
power to make us see them V 9 

Poor souls, there is no such preacher, and 
you need not wait for him. Let him gather 

1 Isa., xliii. 8. a Eph., iv. 18. 



BLIND BARTDIEUS. 83 

God's light as lie will, tie can but pour it on 
blind eyes. A burning-glass will condense 
sunbeams into a focus of brightness ; and if 
a blind eye be put there, not a whit will it 
see, though it be consumed. Light is the 
remedy for darkness, not blindness. 

Neither will strong powers of understand- 
ing on your part, serve. The great Earl of 
Chatham once went with a pious friend to hear 
Mr. Cecil. The sermon was on the Spirit's 
agency in the hearts of believers. As they 
were coming from church, the mighty states- 
man confessed that he could not understand it 
at all, and asked his friend if he supposed that 
any one in the house could. " Why yes," 
said he, " there were many plain, unlettered 
women and some children there, who under- 
stood every word of it, and heard it with 

joy." 

Ah, hapless souls, ye complain against the 
gospel, that it is hidden from you, as if that 
were its fault And now I must bring forth a 
dreadful Scripture which will open the mys- 
tery of your inability to understand it. it 
is a fearful word, which ought to make your 



84 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

ears tingle and your heart freeze with terror 
as you hear it ; — If our gospel be hid, it is hid 
to them that are lost, in whom the god of this 
world hath blinded the minds of them that 
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gos^ 
pel of Christ, who is the image of God, 
should shine unto them. 1 The gospel is 
real and glorious, and is all the while shin- 
ing on in its own divine splendor; but you 
are blind. Satan, the old liar and mur- 
derer, 2 has blinded you lest you should see 
this blessed gospel and be saved. And you 
are lost, lost already. There is your dread- 
ful condition, and therefore you can not see the 
gospel ! 

Let the people of God no more wonder then 
at the clamors of infidels against the Scrip- 
tures. Would you heed a blind man criticis- 
ing pictures, or raving against your summer 
skies ? If he denies that the sun has brightness, 
or the mountains grandeur, will you believe 
him ? And if a hundred blind men should 
all declare that they can not see the stars, and 
argue learnedly that there can be no stars, and 

1 2 Cor., iv. 3, 4. 2 John, viil 44. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 35 

then grow witty and laugh at you as star- 
gazers, would the midnight heavens be less 
glorious to you ? ^When these men had thus 
satisfactorily demonstrated their blindness, 
would not the mighty works of God still 
prove their bright reality to your rejoicing 
vision? Would they not still declare His 
glory and show His handiwork? 1 

And shall the spiritually blind be more 
trusted ? Shall they be spiritual guides ? No, 
the weakest believer who has seen that the 
Lord is gracious, 2 seen any preciousness in the 
promises, any beauty in Christ, any glory in 
the Scriptures, may cling to his faith, despite 
the testimony and pretentious sophistries and 
wit of ten thousand infidels. God has opened 
your eyes. Satan has blinded theirs. Your 
testimony is positive. Theirs is negative, and 
necessarily worthless. A lawyer told his 
client that two men would swear that they 
had seen him commit the murder. " Ah, but," 
said he, " I can bring fifty men who will 
swear that they didn't see me commit it !" And 
that poor villain, guilty, but merry with his 
1 Psalm xix. 1. 2 Psalm xxxiv. 8. 



36 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

own stupid conceit, is a fair type of infidelity 
It can bring men, in great numbers, it must 
be owned, who will swear right lustily, and 
with no little cursing, that they never saw any 
beauty or glory in Christ or His gospel. And 
when they have wrapped this, their whole 
testimony, in the mists of an unintelligible 
philosophy, and played off the machinery of 
an historical criticism, which can prove with 
equal ease, and by the same process, 1 that 
neither Jesus nor Bonaparte ever lived, so 
that man has had no Eedemption and the 
French no Revolution, and have then joined 
in a loud laugh at the deluded " saints" who 
still prefer Paul to Mr. Hume, John to Mr. 
Newman, and Jesus Christ to Dr. Strauss, 
then infidelity has but one thing more which 
it can do, — change its voice, put on a new dis- 
guise, and begin again. 

If these men be followed, they will be 
found to be blind leaders of the blind, and 
both will fall into the ditch. 2 

1 As Archbishop "Whately has shown in his "Historic 
Doubts," etc. 

2 Mat., xv. 14. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 37 

II. — HIS POVERTY. 

See now a sad result of this blindness, — 
deep poverty. In this too is Bartimeus an 
image of every unregenerate soul. Both are 
poor. 

When may a man he called poor? Is 
wealth for the body alone ? Has the heart 
no riches ? May not a mind be impoverished, 
a soul be bankrupt? Ah! yes, there are 
riches besides money, wealth to which gold 
and rubies are as nothing. 1 

A man is poor when his need is not sup- 
plied. The higher the wants, the deeper the 
kind of poverty ; the more the wants, the 
deeper its degree. A man with neither food 
nor shelter, is poorer than he who lacks shel- 
ter only. And is not the man without love 
or hope, poorer than he who has merely no 
fire nor bread ? "Who shall deny the name of 
poor to him whose soul is unfurnished? What 
is the chaff to the wheat, 2 the body to the 
soul ? Are not the soul's desires larger and 

1 James, ii. 5 ; Prov., viii. 10, 11 ; Job, xxyiii. 12-19. 

2 Jer., xxiii. 28. 



38 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

more insatiable than those of the flesh ? Does 
not the heart hunger ? Is there no such thing 
as " a famine of truth and love ?" Do deso- 
late spirits never cower and shiver and freeze, 
like houseless wretches in stormy winter 
nights? Night and winter and storm — are 
they not also for the soul? And when it has 
no home in its desolations, no refuge from its 
foes, no shelter from the blast, no food for its 
hunger, no consolation in its sorrows, is it not 
poor? poor in the deepest poverty, w r hich 
almost alone deserves the name of poverty? 1 

How much of such poverty is there, dwell- 
ing in princely halls, clothed in purple and 
fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day ! 
How often does it w r alk in royal processions, 
and flash with jewels, and handle uncounted 
gold! How much in the circles of wealthy 
"fashionable life," as it is called, by which 
weak souls are so dazzled, and for which weak 
breasts so ache! Fashionable life — with its 
suspicion and envy and falsehood; its little 

1 " That man only is poor in this world, who lives without 
Jesus; and that man only is rich with whom Jesus delights 
to dwell." — Thomas A Kempis. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 39 

meannesses and splendid cheats ; its magnifi- 
cent desolations and gorgeous misery ! There 
is poverty indeed. 

But let me not forget. It may also be 
sober and industrious and plain, and have its 
pew in orthodox churches. I see it before me. 
It has its likeness in Bartimeus ; but its dread- 
ful reality, sinner, in you ! 

I saw a man beginning a long journey. It 
was a most perilous journey, through a wild, 
inhospitable country. It did not seem so at 
first; a green and flowery lane led from his 
dwelling. The road was smooth, the day 
bright, friends near, the prospect fair. He 
set gaily off in an easy carriage, attended by 
assiduous servants, and followed by wagons 
loaded w^ith all curious provision for present 
amusement or need. Song and fragrance filled 
the morning air, and though as the early hours 
flew by, these fled with them, still his spirits 
were high, and the wheels rattled merrily over 
the graded way. The smiles and congratula- 
tions of friends saluted him as he passed, and 
some envied him. He counted himself happy, 
and rejoicing in his admirable appointments, 



40 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

gave up his heart to pleasure. The evening 
of the first day has come, and lo ! the carriage 
is going down a hill. How steep it is getting ! 
Faster and faster it goes. The air darkens, 
the gloom thickens, it grows cold ; and faster, 
faster rolls the carriage downward. Nothing 
can check it. He tries, the servants try. He 
shrieks for help, but in vain. Downward dash 
the horses. And see ! at the bottom of the 
hill, a river, dark and without a bridge. The 
road leads into it. In rush the horses, and 
with struggles and groans and plunges of 
agony, all disappears. 

But our traveler did not die in the stream. 
At the other shore he came forth from the 
water, cold, desolate, alone. His servants 
were gone. His treasure was gone. His 
amusements were gone. And on that bleak 
shore, in that bitter clime, bound still for 
that awful journey, I saw him standing, 
pale, weak, in helpless despair. On, on he 
must go. He was hungry, but he had no 
food ; thirsty, but there was no water ; foot- 
sore, but he must walk. See, he totters, but 
he has no staff; dangers assail him, but he 



BLIND BAETIMEUS. 41 

has no defence; remorse gnaws him, but he 
has now no resource. An irresistible destiny 
urges him 7 and while the hunger ever bites, 
and the way grows rougher, and horrors 
thicken about him, on, on he must go. 

Yet he knew all this from the first, but 
counted it nothing. All his preparations were 
for the pleasant road, through green and 
sunny fields. He seemed rich then. Men 
called him so, all but one honest soul, who 
frankly told him that his arrangements were 
short-sighted, wretched, and that if he went 
thus, his folly was as egregious as soon his 
poverty would be dreadful. But he was 
called a rude man for his pains, and bidden 
begone. Why should he be ever disturb- 
ing the present joy with his doleful prophe- 
cies? The very sight of him made one 
melancholy, and his voice seemed to toll out 
his warning, like a dismal bell at a funeral. 
" Let us use the joys we have, while we have 
them, and let the future take care of itself!" 
So he spoke, and so he went ; and now there 
he is. 

Nay, you need not tell me that my picture 
4* 



42 BLIND BAUTIMEUS. 

is preposterous — that there is no such fool on 
earth. I know how wise the children of this 
world are in their generation, 1 and how un- 
natural all this would be, if I meant the petty 
concerns of this life alone. But suppose I 
strip off the veil, and tell you that eternity is 
that awful journey, and life that pleasant lane, 
and the body that easy carriage in which the 
soul sets out so gaily, and death that bridge- 
less river, where friends can go no further, 
and servants must forsake us, and all the 
treasure of earth go down for ever ? Where 
now is the unnaturalness ? Has it not become 
natural enough — tame even, from its very 
commonness? Thus from your own mouth 
I condemn you, and from the shock you feel, 
w^hen the whole scene is bounded by an inch 
of time, convict you of unutterable madness 
in preparing for the little course of this life 
only, and going all unfurnished for everlasting 
ages. 

As I bid you then, in God's name, beware, 
shall I be driven away as too rough for your 
polite ears and tender nerves? Shall I fear 

1 Luke. xvi. 8. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 43 

lest I describe the coming terrors of your re- 
morse and shame and utter desolation, of }^our 
fiery, unappeasable thirst, and eternal deep 
poverty, so graphically, that you shall be 
really alarmed, and set to securing the true 
riches? Must I measure my periods, and 
make mild words drop trippingly from my 
tongue, lest you should believe me to be in 
earnest ? 

souls, let me deal truly by God's Word, 
and by you. Let me tell } 7 ou that you are 
poor, miserably poor, and in danger of eternal 
poverty. Poor? You have no Almighty 
Comforter for your sorrows, 1 no Infinite Ee- 
deemer for your sins, 2 no Eternal God for 
your portion. 3 You have no solid peace in 
this world, 4 no well-grounded hope for an- 
other, 5 no security for one moment more out 
of hell, 6 You are an alien from God's peo- 
ple, a stranger from his covenants of prom- 
ise, 7 You are without the only blood which 
can pardon, 8 the only Spirit who can pu- 

1 John, xiv. IT. 2 Acts, iy. 12. 3 Mat., xxiv. 51. 

4 Isa., xlviii. 22. 5 Job, xi. 20 ; Prov., xi. 7. 

6 Mat., xil 19, 20. 7 Eph., ii. 12. 8 John, iii. 18. 



44 BLISTD BARTIMEUS. 

purify, 1 the only righteousness which can jus- 
tify, 2 without title to heaven, 3 without meet- 
ness for it, 4 without any hope of it, except 
a hope which is false and shall fail you in the 
day of need. 5 Ah, " you are without Christ 
and have no God," 6 and that is poverty indeed, 
unspeakable, intolerable ! 

Bartimeus' blindness caused his poverty ; 
and your blindness, that is, your sin, has 
caused yours. His blind eyes could not see 
all his poverty, and your blind souls cannot 
see yours. He could get rid of poverty, only 
by getting rid of blindness ; and it is only by 
getting rid of sin, that you shall escape being 
everlastingly poor. 

III. — HIS BEGGARY. 

See now to what a sad strait this blind 
man's malady has brought him — he is a 
beggar. Blindness has made him poor, and 
poverty a beggar. In this, too, he shows the 
woful estate of the sinner. Every sinner is a 

1 John, iii. 5, 6. 2 Job, xxv. 4; Rom., iii. 19-26. 

8 Rev., xxii. 14, 15. 4 Heb., xii. 14. 5 Mat., vii. 21, 26, 21. 

6 Epb., ii. 12. 



BUND BARTIMEUS. 45 

beggar. How can it be otherwise ? Can such 
poverty be independent ? In outward poverty, 
a well-furnished mind, a wealthy soul may be 
an inward solace. But when it is the soul that 
is bankrupt, there is no region still within, 
where it may retire and comfort itself. It will 
seek for happiness, and it must look without — 
it is forced to beg. 

You have seen a blind beggar in your 
streets. He stands at the corner where the 
crowd hurries by. He hears the confused 
hum of busy life — the cries of the drivers, the 
earnest voices of men, the merry laugh of 
children. How lively and happy they all seem 
to him in his melancholy darkness ; all hap- 
pier than he, the poor blind beggar ! In one 
hand he holds his long staff, while the other 
is reaching forth for alms. His form is bent 
with weariness and age. He often stands with 
his head uncovered, through a deference which 
befits his lowly errand; and then you may see 
that his hair is thin and white. His meek face 
and lips moving, but saying nothing, his out- 
stretched hand and sightless eves turning this 
way and that, as if they tried to see and could 



46 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

not — these touch the heart and plead for him 
as no words could do. 

And thus I see poor, guilty, blinded souls 
begging — begging of earth and sky and air 
and sea, of every passing event, of one an- 
other, of all but the great and merciful God, 
who would supply all their need through 
Jesus Christ. 1 They must beg. The vast 
desires of the soul, which God gave that they 
might be filled from Himself, and which no- 
thing but His own fulness can satisfy; the 
noble powers degraded to work with trifles ; 
the aspirations which thrill only as they mount 
heavenward, but now struggle and pant like 
an eagle with broken wing and his breast in 
the dust ; the deathless conscience, filled with 
guilt and touched with unappeasable wrath, 
drugged, indeed, and often sleeping heavily, 
but waking surely, and then lashing the soul 
inexorably — all these compel it to be a beg- 
gar. They constrain it to cry out, with the 
lost fiend, 

11 Me, miserable ! which way shall I fly ?" 

It is not yet conscious, indeed, of a " hell" 

1 Philippians, iv. 19. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 47 

within, but its elements are there, and the un- 
easy burning keeps it for ever restless. 

The soul was made for good, and for good 
it will ever cry. However debased and fallen, 
it still hungers for good. It may be a dis- 
eased hunger now ; but it is not less ravenous 
for that. If it cannot find food, it will devour 
offal. 

In its ruin, the soul feels itself an exile and 
vagabond. It is like a prince stolen away 
from his home in early childhood, and ever 
retaining some dim remembrance of the glory 
of his ancient heritage. Amid its deep pov- 
erty the Toy&l instinct sometimes stirs within 
it, and it wanders weeping through the world, 
in search of that Eden which is no longer on 
earth. 

" Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour," 

the impoverished soul looks for each new hour 
to bring some good it has not yet. Disappoint- 
ed each night, it wakes each day to beg anew 
its daily bread. ''Who will show me any 
good?' 71 is its constant cry, and hither and 

1 Psalm iv. 6. 



48 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

thither, to and fro over the face of the earth, 
it wanders, searching evermore for the satis- 
faction which still it finds not. 

Begging begins in childhood. "VYe beg then 
with eager hope. We are sure we shali not 
be disappointed. Games, holidays, sight-see- 
ing all promise much, and childhood begs 
them to make it blessed. Vexed, wearied, 
sent empty away again and again, the boy 
sees, further on, the youth, pursuing his 
greater hopes, and hastens to join him, confi- 
dent that in higher excitements and larger 
liberty, in new aspirations and tenderer love, 
his soul's thirst shall be slaked. Deluded 
once more, he grows sober and wise and firm. 
He is older. He is a man. He lays deep 
plans now, puts on a bolder face, and begs 
with sterner importunity. He can take no 
denial. He must have happiness ; he will be 
blessed. Fame, wealth, power — these have 
the hidden treasure he has sought so long. He 
knows now where it is, and they must give it 
up. Years are passing, his time will soon be 
gone, and now he begs indeed ! How these 
idols lead his soul captive! How he toils, 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 49 

cringes, grovels, sacrifices for their favor. 
Fame, wealth, power — deceitful gods ! still 
promise that to-morrow the long-sought good 
shall be given. But how many to-morrows 
come and go, and leave him still trusting to 
the next ! Now he forsakes the pleasures he 
might have, dries up the fountains of his 
early love, sweeps all sentiment from his 
heart, crushes his clearest affections, tasks every, 
power to the utmost, wrings out his heart's 
blood, and lays all his soul before his idol's 
feet, — and is disappointed ! Disappointed alike 
in failure and success ! If he wins the prize, 
this is not what he coveted, and worshipped, 
and bargained away his soul for, and he curses 
it for a cheat. If he fails, he still believes that 
the true good was there, and he was near it ; 
and he curses the chance or envy or hate which 
snatched it from his grasp. 

But who shall describe the base arts of 
this beggary ? The disguises, the pretences, 
the fawnings — all the low tricks of street- 
beggars — are adopted and eclipsed by those 
who will be rich, will be great, will have 
fame. 

5 



50 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

And what are the profits of thus begging the 
world for what God alone can give ? 

Observe a street-beggar for awhile. How 
many go bj and give nothing, where one 
drops even a penny in the hat ! So many of 
the passing things of time refuse altogether to 
give the soul the good it asks. 

See again. Do you mark the impudent leer 
of that mean boy ? He knows the beggar is 
blind, and so he comes up pretending sympa- 
thy, and puts a pebble, a chip, in that trem- 
bling hand. So a thousand times have you 
seen the world do for a begging soul. 

But there comes a still meaner boy ; Aeputs 
that which, when the grateful old man's hand 
closes on it pierces or stings it, and, laughing 
loudly in the blind, bewildered face, he runs 
away. And thus have I seen the gay, pol- 
ished world put a sparkling cup to the young 
man's lips ; but when at last it bit him like a 
serpent and stung him like an adder, the pol- 
ished world jeered his imprudence, and turned 
him from its door. His excesses and agony 
and death must not be seen there ! 

And when the beggar's gains for the day are 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 51 

fairly counted, -what are they ? A few copper 
coins, foul with gangrene, and little bits of 
silver, rarely, — enough to buy a scanty meal 
and a poor lodging, and to-morrow all is to 
begin again. And thus the world gives — few 
pleasures, low pleasures, brief pleasures. They 
stay the soul's hunger for awhile, but never 
satisfy it, so that straightway we must go out 
and beg again. The world never raised a 
man's soul above beggary. It is both too self- 
ish and too poor. It gives but little of what 
it has, and if it gave all, gave itself, thai would 
not fill and bless an immortal soul. 

These things make me think how sadly all 
this begging from the world ends. The hour 
comes when the world can do no more. It is 
a bitter hour — an hour of pain and anguish, 
of weakness and despair — the hour of death. 
The world is roaring away as ever, in business 
and mirth, all unconscious that the poor man 
who loved and worshipped it so, is dying. 
His banqueting halls, where the world used to 
riot, are shut. A strange guest came in, un- 
asked, and few cared to stay with him. The 
revelry hushed, the splendor grew dark. He 



52 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

took the host by the hand, astonished and 
speechless, and led him to his chamber, and 
laid him on the bed, and whether others slept 
or waked, he was a constant watcher — with 
those cold, sleepless eyes ! Not many may 
cross the threshold now, and they tread 
lightly, and speak in whispers. Even the 
blessed light of day may no more come in 
freely at the windows. The gloom and soli- 
tude and dreadful stillness of the grave are al- 
ready closing round him. His pillow smoothed 
again, another drop of w T ater, and the chill 
dews of the everlasting night wiped once more 
from his brow — this is all the poor man has 
to ask. from the world. It is all the world has 
to give. 

But oh, the begging of God which now be- 
gins ! Bitter crying to Him whose gracious 
heart has been waiting to bless these many 
years, 1 waiting in vain for one sigh of contri- 
tion, one prayer of faith to His infinite grace ! 
But it is too late. His patient, insulted Spirit 
has been grieved at length. 2 He has departed. 
In anger He hath shut up His tender mercies. 

1 Mat, xxiiL 3t. 2 Eph., iv. 30. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 53 

He will be favorable no more. His mercy is 
clean gone for ever. 1 He gives no answer, and 
the soul, beggared now eternally, goes into 
outer darkness, 2 and begins its blind, everlast- 
ing wanderings in the land of blackness and 
emptiness ! 

1 Ps. lxxvii. 1-9. 2 Mat, xxv. 30 

5* 




II. 



"And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it 
meant, and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by." 

LINDNESS, poverty, beggary ! What 
woes to be mingled in one cup ! Who 
can measure the wretchedness of the 
man who is ever drinking their still 
unexhausted bitterness ? Let us pity 
Bartimeus. But do not forget the deeper sor- 
rows of which these were but the shadow. I 
see more miserable souls before me. I can 
weep over Bartimeus, but when I look at many 
of you, I am amazed that I ever cease to weep. 
What hardness has seized my heart that I can 
think of j^ou without tears, or meet you with- 
out lamentation ? The heavens are astonished 
at your wretchedness and doom, and why doth 
not horror take hold on my soul ?* Oh that 
my head were waters, and mine eyes a foun- 

1 Jer., ii. 12, 13 ; Ps. cxix. 53. 



BLLNTD BARTIMEUS. 55 

tain of tears, tliat I might weep day and night 
for you, 1 ye blinder blind, and poorer poor 
than Bartimeus ! 

Ah ! if it were only the eye of the body 
that is out ! only the flesh that is clothed with 
rags ! Yet that would be dreadful. It was 
dreadful in visions of the night, when deep 
sleep falleth on men. 2 Then I dreamed that 
Sabbath morning had come, and I stood in 
my pulpit to preach ; when suddenly I saw 
paleness gathering on all faces ; for God was 
wrapping jo^a. in His cloud and thick dark- 
ness, and I stood alone among a congregation 
of the blind. Then a change passed over your 
bright raiment, and it became rags — the coarse 
rags of beggars. All bloom fled from every 
cheek, and every form was shrivelled and bent. 
A horrible old age had come even on the faces 
of little children. Ah ! what a scene it was ! 
Some of you groped your fearful way in 
the dark. Some shrieked in frenzy. Some 
stretched your bony hands and turned your 
hunger-bitten faces toward heaven, and with 
eyes that wept their own blindness, cried in 

1 Jer., ix. 1. 2 Job, iv. 13. 



56 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

anguish for light ; while some sat still, pet- 
rified with, horror. Yet I knew you all as be- 
fore. I looked down on the same dear faces, 
wretched now, and ghastly, the same gentle 
eyes through which loving souls had so often 
looked in kindness on me, — now distorted and 
wild, and " rolling in vain to find the day." 

When grief and astonishment would let me, 
I tried to speak, but none heard me. I called 
aloud ; but screams and sobs and deep-drawn 
sighs, and curses muttered through gnashing 
teeth, drowned my voice. When ]o ! amid 
the great bitterness and struggle of my soul, I 
heard the voice of God saying unto me, 
" Weep not, nor be dismayed for this ; but 
weep for souls that see not, and hearts that 
are blind. Weep for the desolations of sin, of 
which I have now shown thee a little, lest I 
visit the people in mine anger, and there be 
no remedy ; lest I smite them in my wrath, 
and their blindness be everlasting. Weep for 
them." 

The awful voice had made a great silence, 
and now again it spoke, and said to you, with 
a benignant sweetness which melted your 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 57 

hearts and poured sunbeams on your darkness, 
" ye wretched, and miserable, and poor, and 
blind, and naked ; I counsel you to buy of me 
gold tried in the fire, that ye may be rich ; and 
white raiment that ye may be clothed, and 
that the shame of your nakedness do not ap- 
pear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve 
that ye may see I" 1 

Will you not weep for yourselves, ye blind 
souls ? Will j^ou not believe God's testimony 
declaring your ruin and proclaiming a rem- 
edy? Will you not taste and see that the 
Lord is gracious? 2 Will you not follow on 
to know the Lord 3 as He reveals His loving- 
kindness, in this story, in which human mis- 
ery and divine mercy so strangely meet, and 
mercy so blessedly triumphs ? Consent to begin 
in the depths with Bartimeus, and one day you 
shall stand on the heights with him, praising 
his God and 3 ours with irrepressible rejoicing. 

But, poor man ! his song is not yet. He 

still sits by the high-way, as unconscious as 

the dead, of the blessing which even now 

slowly draws near, and soon shall pour around 

1 Rev., iil 18. 2 Psalm xxxiv. 8. 3 Hosea, vl 3. 



58 BLUNT} BARTIMEUS. 

and through him its streams of earthly and 
heavenly light. 

There he sits in his dreary darkness, while 
from the Throne an Eye of pity is looking 
down upon him, and from the gates of heaven 
loving angels are pouring forth, 1 to behold a 
new triumph of the power and grace of their 
Lord, 2 and welcome a new companion to their 
everlasting joy, 3 and that Lord Himself is 
coming nearer, nearer, with his heart yearn- 
ing for its gracious overflow. That celestial 
virtue, which dwelt in unmeasured fulness in 
Him and poured out so freely that, if faith's 
finger touched even the hem of His garment, 
its liberal streams emptied themselves till all 
human need was filled, 4 — that virtue was even 
now springing up from the deep wells of His 
Deity and thrilling His human heart with 
secret joy. 

And is it not always so? Does not God 
always begin with man ? What has man, ex- 
cept his miseries, to attract any thing in God ? 
And what can these attract but grace — pure 

1 Heb., i. 14 2 1 Peter, i. 12. 

3 Luke, xv. 10. 4 Luke, viil 43-48. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 59 

grace coming in place of deserved wrath? 
And when even this comes, it finds no wel- 
come or congenial home. " The grace of 
God in the heart of man," says Leigh ton, " is 
a tender plant in a strange, unkindly soil." 
Both the seed and the sunshine, then, must 
come from heaven. To him that hath, indeed, 
shall be given, 1 but then what have we that 
we did not receive? 2 Every good gift is from 
above. 3 Have we repentance ? Him hath 
Grod exalted with His right hand to be a 
Prince and Saviour, for to give repentance to 
Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 4 Pardon is no 
more the gift of Christ than the repentance 
that leads to it. Have we faith? It is the 
gift of God. 5 Jesus is its Author as well as 
Finisher. 6 Have we love? We love Him 
because He first loved us. 7 Love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance, are all the fruit of the 
Spirit; 8 while if you would see what fruit 
springs of itself from the vine of nature, you 
may read just before, 9 where Paul counts over 

i Luke, xix. 26. 2 1 Cor., iv. 1. 2 James, i. IT. 
4 Acts. v. 31. 6 Epb., ii. 8. 6 Heb., xii. 2. 

7 1 John, iv. 19. 8 Gal., v. 22, 23. 9 Gal, y. 19-21. 



60 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

seventeen bitter, deadly clusters, and then, 
weary of the dreadful count, adds, " and such 
like." When God begins to deal- graciously 
with us, passing by us in pity, and looking 
on us in love, to make us His in everlasting 
espousals, we are described under, the image 
of a miserable infant, born in an accursed land 
and of accursed parents, and cast out immedi- 
ately, unpitied, into the open field, exposed, 
helpless, bleeding, polluted, to die I 1 And in 
many other Scriptures we are declared to be 
by nature, dead in trespasses and sins, lying 
in wickedness, children of wrath, having minds 
which are enmity against God, of our father 
the devil. 2 And if the likeness, corruption 
and curse of hell are not ours for ever, the 
change from first to last is of God. " Men find 
a thing lovely, and love it; God loves a thing, 
and thereby makes it lovely." 3 

In this case, it is indeed brought to pass 
that the first word shall come from Bartimeus. 
But Christ, who is coming near on purpose to 
bless him, has, by His Providence, arranged 

1 Ezek. xvi. 2 Eph., ii. 1 ; 1 John, v. 19 ; Eph., ii. 3 ; 

"Rom., viii. 1 ; John, viii. 44. 3 Jenkyn on Jude. 



BLIND BABTIMEUS. 61 

it that he shall be sitting there as He is to pass 
by, that he should have some previous knowl- 
edge of Jesus of Nazareth and His power to 
heal, that his curiosity shall be awakened and 
his desires excited, while through His grace 
alone, he has faith to call Him Lord and trust 
his cure to His power and compassion. 1 

There he sits hoping for mere worldly gain. 
He has not come to meet Christ- It was not 
in all his thoughts to get his eyes opened. 

How many like him are before me, — dying 
sinners on whom God's curse is resting, who 
yet did not come to secure the great salvation. 
You have gathered in the place of mercy, but 
not as fugitives from the wrath that is pursu- 
ing you. You knew that Christ was preached 
here in every sermon, but you did not come 
to meet Him. How many of this perishing 
multitude came for no higher reason than that 
others were coming, and you knew not well 
what else to be doing meantime, or you thought 
it decent to come, or you. like to hear sermons. 
For these and such reasons you have dared to 
seat yourselves in the house of God, and come 

1 Cor., xii. 3 ; Eph., ii. 8. 
6 



62 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

under the tremendous responsibilities of hearers 
of the gospel! To stroll through sacred places, 
careless spectators of the crucifixion; indif- 
ferent lookers-on while God comes down in 
tempest and blackness on Mt. Sinai, to give 
His dreadful Law ! 

God grant a further parallel ; that you may 
get what j^ou did not come for, even a solemn 
meeting and saving closing of your souls with 
Jesus Christ 

There sits the blind man, when a faint sound 
catches his quick ear. He listens, and per- 
ceives a noise of many foot-steps, a murmur 
of many voices, confused and distant. On 
they come, and hope rises high in his breast. 
To-day shall be a harvest to him. It is rare 
that so many pass at once, and now will he be 
diligent. On they come, and louder grows 
the sound of steps, the swell of voices. Won- 
der mingles with his hope, — wonder what all 
this means, for now they are near, and plainly 
it is a great multitude. 

A multitude with Jesus ! a multitude of fol- 
lowers ! How can he then complain, I have 
labored in vain, I have spent my strength 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 63 

for naught ?* Simply because He had many 
followers, but few friends ; many from curios- 
ity, many for loaves, many for fashion, but 
few from faith, few from love. And so it has 
been ever since. 

A multitude with Jesus ! But it is not all 
following that blesses. Judas followed Him 
daily, but remained to the end the thief and 
devil he was from the beginning. 2 Once the 
people not only followed but thronged Him ; 
but only one was healed, and she touched but 
the hem of His garment. They pressed npon 
Him, but hers was the only touch of faith.' 
Mere outward connection with. Christ did no 
man any good. And so it has been ever 
since. 

A multitude with Jesus ! Yes, when His 
march is at all triumphal, — when as He goes 
He invests His progress with the splendor of 
miracles, there will be no want of a crowd to 
gape after Him. But though He fed as well 
as dazzled them yesterday, a little hard doc- 
trine preached to-day thins them with a wit- 

1 Isa., xlix. 4. 2 John, vi. TO; Mat, xxyi. 24 j xxvii 5. 
8 Mark, v. 27, 31, 34. 



64 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

ness. No man, said Jesus, can come unto me, 
except it were given unto him of my Father. 
From that time many of His disciples went 
back and walked no more with Him. 1 And 
so it has been ever since. 

A multitude with Jesus ! Take care, then, 
ye members of the church. Examine your- 
selves closely. Profession of religion is easy 
now. Numbers give power, respectability, 
fashion, even enthusiasm. See ! They spread 
their costly raiment in His path. They pave 
His way with purple. The thunder of their 
hosannahs goes up to heaven. 2 But to-morrow 
He is alone, and the multitude grow hoarse 
with hooting and cursing Him. 3 So little was 
the applause of the multitude worth ; so little 
did popularity test principle in the days of 
Jesus. And so it has been ever since. 

A multitude with Jesus I Blessed be (rod, 
in that multitude some true disciples may be 
found; some who, though weak and sin- 
ning, — forward, like Peter, when they should be 
backward/ and then backward, of course, when 

1 John, vi. 65, 66. 2 Mat,, xxi. 8, 9. 

8 Luke, xxiii. 18, 21, 23. 4 Mat, xvi. 22. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 65 

they should be forward ;' ambitious, like Zeb- 
edee's children, 2 or doubting like Thomas, 3 are 
still true friends of Jesus, living for Him, suf- 
fering for Him, growing like Him day by day, 
and dying for Him without a murmur, if He 
so appoint. Always remember that. Jesus 
Christ has never been left without true fol- 
lowers. Among the professed people of God 
there have always been real people of God. 
So it was in the days of Christ. And so it 
has been ever since. 

"And hearing the multitude." O what a 
blessing is that ! His ears are open though 
his eyes are shut. Thus God remembers to 
be gracious. Where He takes one mercy He 
leaves another. He never takes all until the 
cup of iniquity is full, 4 and then wrath comes 
to the uttermost and shivers it. 5 He leaves 
even the heathen without excuse, for they 
may know His eternal power and Godhead 
from the works of creation. 6 And no sinner 
need flatter himself that because the Bible 
calls him blind or dead, he shall therefore 

1 Mat, xxvi. 58. 2 Mat, xx. 20-24. 3 John, xx. 25. 

4 Gen., xv. 16. 5 1 Thes., ii. 16. « Rom., i. 20, 32 ; ii. 14, 15. 

6* 



66 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

escape duty or condemnation. The same 
epistle which, pronounces sinners dead in tres- 
passes and sins, shouts in their ears, Awake, 
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead 
and Christ shall give thee light! 1 

Yes sinners, you are blind ; you cannot see 
spiritual beauty or glory. But you can i hear' 
of them, and know that you must see them or 
perish. 

"But / cannot open my eyes. So you 
have told me again and again. You say I am 
helpless." 

You are indeed; but it remains nevertheless 
true that you must see or perish. 

"Is not this a hard case? Is not such, 
preaching mockery? I cannot open my 
eyes." 

True, true, and the more's the pity. It is 
a hard case. For the constitution of heaven 
will not be changed by your helplessness. 
Christ tells us that none are blessed but they 
who see God, and that only the pure in heart 
shall see Him. 2 But your heart is foul with 
sin which God hates, and its foulness has 

1 Bph., ii. 1 ; v. 14. 2 Mat., V. 8. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 67 

blinded your eyes and brought you under 
His curse. So that you are, indeed, in help- 
less blindness. And j^et you must see or 
perish. 

"But why preach this to me? If I am 
helpless why urge me with impossible duties 
and vain responsibilities?" 

Because it is true that you are helpless, and 
true that j^ou must see or perish. Both are 
awful truths of God's word, and it greatly con- 
cerns you to know them. I see indeed that 
you would silence me by this logic. You 
think that in pleading jour inability, you 
have an argument that will excuse you from 
the duties you hate* Very well : suppose you 
do silence me. God will still call to you, 
Repent or perish, L Believe or be damned! 2 
And if you do excuse yourself from these 
hateful duties, do you know that you will also 
excuse yourself from salvation? You need 
not see, you need not believe. God will not 
compel your vision or your faith. But He 
will compel you to believe or be damned, to 
see or be lost. So all your logic has done for 

1 Luke, xiii. 3, 5. 2 ^lark, xvi. 16. 



68 BLIND- BARTIMEUS. 

you is to shut you out of heaven. But per- 
haps you do not believe that you are helpless. 
Then prove your power by opening your 
eyes. Try it. See, if you can. Look around 
on the regions of spiritual beauty. Delight 
yourself with the saints' blessedness. God's 
light and love are pouring all around you, and 
they will pour into you, if you can but open 
your eyes. . . . There, have you done it? 
Do they fill you with light? Bathe your soul 
with wonder and bliss? Ah! have you failed? 
Are you still blind? Is all dark? Is your 
heart still cold and hard? Alas, then you 
are helpless, and may never see ! Yet if you 
do not see you must perish ! 

" Ah, me ! what then shall I do ?" 
What ! are you indeed convinced that you 
have no power to open your eyes ? And yet 
that you must see or perish ? 

"Yes, alas! I feel my utter helplessness, 
while the Law of God is urging me with its 
heavy requirements. I know I can have no 
heaven but in the vision of God reconciled, 
and smiling on me. that would indeed be 
heaven ! But I do not, cannot see Him. I 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 69 

am blind, and can do nothing. wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me?" 1 

Now, sinner, you find the use of preach- 
ing your helplessness and your duty together. 
The merciless dilemma has met you at either 
hand, and shut you up to the faith of the 
gospel, 2 You have learned to despair of your 
own strength, and cry out for a deliverer. 
Then you were in no haste to obey God, for 
what you could do at any time, why should 
you not choose your own time for? You 
would wait for a convenient season. But now 
that shield of vain confidence is cast away, 
and your naked heart bared to every arrow 
from the quiver of Grod. You lie helpless 
before a Sovereign God, justly condemned, 
and hopelessly lost, unless He save you. And 
now I may tell you what to do. 

Do what Bartimeus did. Hear the truth, 
bear the truth, believe the truth. Settle it for 
ever in your heart that if you do not see your 
infinite need of a Saviour, and Christ's infinite 
fitness to be your Saviour, you are lost. Then 
cry to Jesus Christ to open your eyes. Salva- 

i Rom., vii. 24. 2 GaL, iii. 23. 



70 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

tion is by faith, 1 and faith, is by hearing/ and 
you have hearing, you do hear — hear that you 
are blind, and the wrath of God is on you, 8 
and the vengeance of hell awaits you, 4 and 
none but Jesus Christ can save you, 6 and He 
can ! 6 You hear that, and I pray you make 
speedy use of it, or that will be taken away, 
with every other sense and power, and this 
death in sin will deepen into death in hell — 
death in blindness and despair for ever ! 

I have seen Laura Bridgman, whom God 
sent into this world without sight, hearing, or 
the power of speech. She could see nothing, 
hear nothing, ask nothing. To her the very 
thunder has ever been silence, and the sun 
blackness. The tips of her fingers and the 
palms of her hands have been her eyes and 
ears and tongue. Yet that poor sickly girl 
knows much of the earth and language and 
numbers ; of human relationships and pas- 
sions ; of what is, has been, shall be ; should 
be ; of sin and death and hell ; of God and 
Christ and Heaven. And all this has gone 

1 Eph., ii. 8. 2 Rom., x. 11. 3 John, iii. 36. 

4 Mat, xxv. 41. 5 Acts, iv. 12. 6 1 Tim., L 15. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 71 

through the poor child's slender fingers, 
darkly feeling the fingers of another ; and 
thus she tells her hopes and fears and sorrows. 
And if she, groping so blindly for the Sa- 
viour, finds Him, and rests her weak hands 
on His lowly Head, — tKat blessed Head which 
bows lowly enough even for this, — how will 
she rise up in judgment, 1 and condemn, with 
utter overwhelming, you, oh, sinners, upon 
whose souls every sense is pouring the knowl- 
edge of God, while your eyes read His Holy 
Word, and your ears hear, a thousand times 
over, these tidings of great joy, — even the 
glorious gospel of the blessed Grod !* 

" Hearing the multitude pass by, he asked 
what it meant.'' So this inarticulate preach- 
ing of the passing multitude arrested the at- 
tention of the blind man, and awakened his 
curiosity, and set him to inquiring the mean- 
ing of these things. u Hearing, he asked." 
Yes, yes, that is the true progression. If there 
is a movement in the church, if a new impulse 
is given to the power of godliness, if Christ 
walks amidst His people, 3 even though false 

" Mat., xii. 41, 42. 2 1 TfsL 111 3 Rev., il 1. 



72 " BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

professors gather with them ; if the tread of 
Zion on the earth is like the tread of an army 
with banners, 1 then will a blind, ungodly 
world be arrested from its hungry, clamorous 
quest after mere earthly gain. It will con- 
sider and wonder and inquire. If the church, 
— if you, my brethren, will cease to wander 
or dance or drudge wherever the world 
does; if you will be awake and up, and 
gather nearer to Christ and thus nearer to 
each other ; if you will move onward with 
Christ, then men will look up. Old Avarice 
will drop his muck-rake, and Ambition forget 
to chase his bubble, and on the highway or 
byway, in court and camp and on 'change, 
men will pause and look ; and the movements 
of a spiritual church will make them wonder, 
and they will inquire, (while no little awe is 
creeping over their hearts,) What do these 
things mean? Where are these men going? 
Why do they seem like strangers and pilgrims, 
with their loins girded and their faces set to- 
ward some far-off country ? 2 Why are they 
so earnest ? Why do they seem to walk above 

1 Song, vL 10. 2 Heb., xi. 13 ; Luke, xii. 35 ; Jer., 1. 5. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 73 

above the world, 1 while yet they scatter ten 
thousand sweet charities as they pass ? What 
means their strange speech like an unearthly 
harmony ? Why do they sing in the way, 
brave songs of glory, even when the cloud 
wraps them, and the driving storm beats them 
with its hail ? 

If Zion thus moved on with her King in the 
midst of her, 3 how would the thunder of her 
triumph shake the earth ! Ah, brethren, if 
you, just you, thus moved on under the Cap- 
tain of jour salvation, how would this city be 
stirred ! Your life would then be preaching 
all over the town, — in every street and lane, 
and it would be preaching which would crowd 
this house continually with anxious inquir- 
ers. In my heart I believe it ; every seat 
and standing-place would be filled, and the 
place be speedily too strait for us, 4 and that 
cheering cry be heard again among us, Let us 
rise up and build.* Then would these courts 
be still and awful. Believers would find it 
hard to be absent. Pious affections, deep 

1 Prov., xv. 24. 2 Ps. cxxxviii. 5. 3 Zech., iii. 15, IT* 
* Isa.. xlix. 20. 5 Neh., ii. 18. 



74 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

adorations, importunate desires would fill their 
hearts and go up to heaven. With what power 
would they sing! With what fervor would 
they pray I With what holy relish would 
they eat the simple food of the gospel ! And 
how would the unpardoned hang with pain- 
ful anxiety on the words of life ! How sim- 
ple and easy would preaching then be, — yet 
savoring so preciously of life everlasting 
through Christ crucified. 

Shall I describe a sermon which would re- 
fresh the people of God, and be as arrows in 
the hearts of His enemies, 1 till they became 
willing captives of Christ V 

My text shall be my guide. The road-side 
was the church, the multitude preached, and 
Bartimeus was the hearer. And now for the 
sermon ; — "And they told him, Jesus of Naz- 
areth passeth by." u Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by !" That is the whole of it, and I think it a 
very good one, when we consider the occasion. 
At any rate it enchained the whole mind and 
heart of Bartimeus. It went down into his 
soul like a beam of light, and filled him with 
1 Psalm xlv. 5. 2 Psalm ex. 3. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 75 

amazement and joy. It was the strangest, 
gladdest word he had ever heard. ' Jesus of 
Nazareth — the Saviour — He who openeth the 
eyes of the blind ! Is He here — so near me — 
where I may speak to Him ? has the day 
come at last, when my eyes shall be opened ? 
When I shall see, shall see, and be no more 
a beggar ? can such news be true V 

So you see it was a jpoiverful sermon. It 
went to the heart and took complete posses- 
sion of it. I am quite sure Bartimeuswas not 
a captious critic of that sermon. He had no 
time to think whether it was uttered fast or 
slowly, loudly or gently. But what made it 
so powerful? "Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by." That is all of it. I am afraid many of 
us would think very little of such a sermon. 
But Bartimeus felt his blindness and his need 
of Christ. There is the difference. The power 
of the sermon was in the state of the hearer's 
heart. A sermon often seems poor because 
we are cold. There is a difference in sermons, 
no doubt. But I read that men could go to 
sleep while Paul preached, 1 and even the wise 

1 Acts, xx. 9. 



76 BLIOT) BARTIMEUS. 

men of Athens called him a babbler and 
mocked, 1 while the most noble Festus, who 
was a gentleman in high life, and should have 
known better, interrupted him in the midst of 
his sermon, and pronounced him " mad," 2 — 
crazy, as we would say. If sinners and saints 
felt their needs more, — if they oftener came 
from secret devotions, the simplest things we 
could say of Christ would be like bread to the 
hungry and cold waters to the thirsty soul. 9 

It was a very simple sermon. Who cannot 
preach it? " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 
There is no follower of Jesus who cannot tell 
poor blind souls this. Yet this is the message 
which is to save the world. The Bible tells it 
over in a thousand forms. Fill your hearts 
with them, and go, tell the glad tidings to lost 
sinners every where. I thank God that the 
gospel is so simple that the whole multitude 
of Christ's followers can preach it. 

And so must the preaching from the pulpit 
be simple. We must say many things that 
our hearers already know. A good preacher 
tries to make all truth simple. He is a bad 

1 Acts, xvii. 18, 32. 2 Acts, xxvi. 24. 3 Prov., xxv. 25. 



BLIND BABTIMEUS. 77 

shepherd, say the old writers, who holds the 
hay too high for the sheep. According to 
Lord Bacon, little minds love to inflate plain 
things into marvels, while great minds love to 
reduce marvels to plain things. 

" The very essence of truth," says Milton, 
"is plainness and brightness; the darkness 
and crookedness are our own.'' 1 " Better the 
grammarian should reprehend," says Jenkyn, 
" than the people not understand. Pithy plain- 
ness is the beauty of preaching. What good 
doth a golden key that opens not?" 2 An old 
lady once walked a great way to hear the cele- 
brated Adam Clarke preach. She had heard 
he was "such a scholar," as indeed he was. 
But she was bitterly disappointed, "because," 
said she, " I understood every thing he said." 
And I knew a man who left the church one 
morning quite indignant, because the preacher 
had one thing in his sermon he knew before ! 
It was a little explanation meant for the chil- 
dren, — dear little things, — they are always 
coming on, and I love to see their bright little 

1 Reformation in England. Book First. 

2 Exposition upon Judo. 

7* 



78 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

faces among the older people. We used to 
need and prize these simple explanations, and 
why shouldn't they haye them in their turn ? 
And this blessed thing is to be said of the 
gospel: Let it be made ever so simple, so that 
little children are drinking it in with grateful 
wonder, it still has depths and riches to satisfy 
the mind and heart of the mightiest philoso- 
pher, if only he has that highest attainment 
of wisdom, — a simple, child-like faith. Like 
the sun, it is mirrored at the same moment by 
the dew-drop and the ocean. 

But best of all, this sermon was about Christ. 
He is mentioned alone. When Bartimeus 
asked " what it meant, " these preachers did 
not answer, " "We are passing by." Yet their 
movements arrested him ; he heard them. But 
when he asked what the multitude meant, they 
told him " Jesus of Nazareth passe th by." It 
is a happy thing when the church can say 
of all its great movements and excitements, 
" Jesus is passing by." This is a test of re- 
vivals; a test of all right Christian effort, — 
" Jesus passeth bj 7 ." This is the test too of a 
good sermon. " The excellency of a sermon," 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 79 

says Flavel, " lies in the plainest discoveries 
and liveliest applications of Jesus Christ. " 

They annoance that Jesus is near. "What 
blessed tidings to Bartimeus ! In this you all 
agree. It was a great thing for him to have 
his eyes opened. From these far-off ages your 
sympathies run back and mingle with his 
agitation of joy. To have the eyes opened — 
to see for the first time ! The rapture must be 
indescribable. 

And when I announce the nearness of 
Jesus, now and here, to you, oh sinner, why 
is not the news joyful? Was it much that 
those eyes should be opened upon a world 
darkened by the curse, and stained by the 
shadow of death, and furrowed so roughly 
with graves? eyes often to be dimmed with 
tears and soon with age ! eyes whose brief 
light death should soon quench with the clods 
of the valley, and leave their hollow sockets 
to be nests for worms ! Yes, yes, I confess 
it, even this was much. But oh, tell me, in 
your turn, is it nothing to you that Jesus is 
again near, and that your eyes may this day 
be opened to the light of the Cross? light 



80 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

fairer than the moon, clearer than the sun, and 
making earth radiant with the glories of 
heaven? light which often streams brightest 
in death, gilding even the dark valley ? light 
of the everlasting Throne, on which, with 
saints and angels, you may gaze for ever ? 

And is it tidings of this light alone, which 
cannot agitate ? Is it only eternal salvation 
that is a trifle ? Is it only because the offered 
blessedness is absolutely immeasurable and 
everlasting, that it is not worth your thought 
or care ? 

Miserable souls ! so blind that you do not 
know your blindness, so blind that you do 
not believe it, though God declares it, my 
business now is to tell you that Jesus Christ 
is near, — He passeth by ! Now is your time ; 
make haste to secure your salvation. How 
near He is ! He passeth by in the light of 
every Sabbath sun, in every Church built to 
His Name, in every reading of His Word, 
in every gospel sermon, in sacraments and 
prayers and psalms, but most of all in every 
movement of His Spirit on the heart. If you 
feel under the truth, if your conscience con- 



BLIXD BAETIMEU3. 81 

firms what God declares, if you have been 
made even uneasy in your sin, if like Felix 
you have trembled, 1 or like Agrippa have 
been almost persuaded to be a Christian, 2 oh ! 
let me tell you that / did not work any of 
these things in your heart. "Who am I, that 
I can put a pulse in the heart of death? 3 
They are not my work, and I dare not claim 
the glory of them. 4 God's Spirit has been 
stirring in your heart, striving with you for 
your eternal salvation ! "What an awfulness 
does that give to these services ! Jesus, God 
manifest in the flesh, 5 is here, by His gracious 
Spirit. 6 He fills every ordinance. 7 He moves 
from heart to heart. You are in His tremen- 
dous presence, under His omniscient eye, in 
the grasp of His infinite power, in the gracious 
sphere of His healing love. 

But He " passeth by /" He will not always 
tarry. 3 The day of grace is not for ever. 9 Its 
sun will go down, arid the night that follows 
is eternal despair. 10 Christ never passed that 

1 Acts, xxiv. 25. 2 Acts, xxvi. 28. 3 2 Kings, v. 6. 

4 Ps. cxv. 1. 6 1 Tiin., iii. 16. 6 j hn, xvi. 1, 8. 

7 Mat, xviii. 20. * John, xii. 35, 36. 9 Gen., vl 3. 

i° John, yiii. 21, 24 ; Luke, xix. 42. 



82 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

way again ; He may never pass your way 
again. That was His last visit to Jericho; 
this call may be His last visit to you. This 
was Bartimeus' only opportunity ; to-day may 
be your only opportunity. 1 Woe, woe, to 
Bartimeus, if he lose this golden season ! If 
he does he shall die in his blindness. Woe, 
a heavier woe to you, sinner, if 3^0 u slight 
this, your golden season, for securing this great 
salvation! 2 This moment may decide your 
doom. Fly to Jesus Christ ! 

1 2 Cor., vl 2. 2 Heb., ii. 3. 




III. 

" And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he be- 
gan to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me I" 

) E left Bartimeus listening to his first 
gospel sermon. The preachers seem 
to have done their part well. At 
any rate their message was good. 
It was simple, straight-forward and 
altogether about Jesus Christ. 

We do not know how they spoke. It would 
be pleasant, for their sakes, to know that they 
showed a proper sympathy with the precious 
words they were saying, and with the poor 
man who heard them. But if we cannot tell 
this, we know what concerns us far more, — 
that they told him the very thing he needed. 
However rude in speech, they have let him 
know that the Healer of the blind is near ; 
and I am sure that nothing they could say 
about any thing else could make up for not 



84 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

telling him that. The most eloquent harangue 
on the politics of the times, though Pilate and 
Herod and Caesar, and Roman eagles and Jew- 
ish banners, and liberty and nationality and 
destiny had rolled with splendid imagery 
through sounding periods, would have been a 
sad exchange for those simple words, — " Jesus 
of Nazareth passeth by." Nor would Aris- 
totle's keenest logic, nor Plato's finest specu- 
lations haye served a whit better. The man 
was blind, and wanted his eyes opened ; and 
till this was done, these things, however set 
forth, were but trash and mockery. 

Mockery ? Are not the preachers of God's 
Word stewards in Christ's House V And has 
He not made ready to our hands boundless 
stores for perishing sinners, and bidden us 
give as freely as we have received? 2 And 
when hungry souls come at our call to the 
gospel feast and wait to be fed, if we give 
them dry husks of philosophy for the u strong 
meat" of doctrine, the " stone" of hard meta- 
physics for the living bread of God's saving 
truth, and the " scorpion" of envenomed po- 
i 1 Cor., iv. 1, 2 ; 1 Pet., iv. 10. 2 Mat, x 8. 



• BLIND BAKTDIEUS. 85 

litical fanaticism for the sincere milk of the 
word, clusters from Eshcol, water from the 
Eiver of Life, wine of gladness, and manna 
still wet with the dews with which it came 
clown from heaven, 1 — is it not bitterest mock- 
ery of the deepest sorrows and. basest treachery 
to the highest trusts ? 

ISTay, if these preachers tolcl their glad tidings 
in an unfeeling way, it was a great wrong, — 
a wrong to themselves and Bartimeus and 
such blessed truth, but still a wrong immea- 
surably less than not to have told such truth, 
in whatever way. 

But if the preacher's responsibility is so 
dreadful, I pray yon, has the hearer no re- 
sponsibility? If these men tell Bartimeus 
that Jesus passeth by, though in a way hav- 
ing what faults you please, will he not be the 
most besotted of fools, if he turns from this 
glorious opportunity, and gropes his way back 
to his hovel, to sit down there in poverty and 
darkness, and sneer or laugh or be angry at 
these failures in manner or spirit? These 

1 Heb., v. 14 ; Luke, xi. 11, 12 ; 1 Pet, ii. 2 ; Numb., xiii. 
23 ; Rev., xxii. 1 ; Numb., xi. 9. 



86 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

things concern them and they must answer 
for them to God, but what concerns him but 
that he is blind, and now " Jesus of Naza- 
reth passeth by ?" 

Take heed, therefore, how ye hear, 1 is the 
warning of Christ. there is much in that ! 
If we must take heed to our preaching, you 
must take heed to your hearing. If an awful 
account must be given from the pulpit, one 
hardly less awful must be given from the pew* 
If it is no light thing to preach the gospel, you 
will find that it is no light thing to hear the 
gospel. Eternal salvation depends on right 
hearing. There are just two kinds of hearing, 
not three. There is a hearing unto life, and 
another hearing unto death ; but there is no 
hearing between, — none to indifference. You 
may try to hear merely that you may hear, 
and let that be the end of it, — but that will 
not be the end of it. The end of it will be 
life or death ! You may resolve that the 
preaching shall make no difference in 3^011, — 
but it will make a difference in you, and the 
difference will be salvation or perdition ! The 

2 Luke, viiL 18. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 87 

gospel leaves no man where it found him. If 
it be not wings to bear him to heaven, it will 
be a mill-stone to sink him to hell. Some of 
you think it the lightest of pastimes to come 
to church and hear a sermon. I warn you 
that this is a fearful mistake. I will speak to 
you in the words of God : "We are ambassadors 
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by 
us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye rec- 
onciled to God. 1 "We are unto God a sweet 
savor of Christ, in them that are saved and 
in them that perish: to the one we are the 
savor of death unto death ; and to the other 
the savor of life unto life. 2 If our gospel be 
hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 3 This is 
true always. It is true to-day, — of this ser- 
mon. As God is true, this process is now 
going on in every hearer. Each one of you 
is this moment fitting either for blessedness 
with God, or for His wrath in hell ; for which, 
depends on one thing alone, — how you are 
now hearing. Take heed then, and that you 
may do this the more intelligently, see further 
how Bartimeus heard. I think we shall find 

1 2 Cor., v. 20. 22 Cor., ii. 15, 16. s 2 Cor., iv. 3. 



88 BLIND BAETIMEUS. ■ 

most of the marks of a good hearer in him, 
and I shall notice none other. 

I. His hearing led Mm to action. His very 
soul seemed to be roused, and he began to do 
something. 

In contrast with this we see the great fault 
of gospel hearers in this day. It is not that 
you are not polite and attentive hearers. 
Your orderly sitting and solemn listening are 
even bej^ond our expectation. When Paul 
and Stephen and Christ preached, the peo- 
ple often made a tumult. They mocked ; they 
sneered ; they cried out and threw dust into the 
air. They were ready to beat and kill them. 1 
You do none of these things. I often wonder 
you do not. It sometimes makes me fear I 
have not dealt faithfully with you. Yet I try 
to preach as plainly as they did. I take their 
very words, and in the name of God speak 
them boldly to you. I do not abate one jot 
of their terrible energy and point. Yea, I take 
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God, 2 and with unsparing hand lay open your 
hearts. I repeat the tremendous descriptions 
1 John, viil 59; Acts, xxii. 22, 23, &c, &c. 2 Eph., vi 17. 



BLIND BABTTMEUS. 89 

•which God has given of them ; I apply the 
dreadful names by which He has called you ; 
I sound aloud the threats of His wrath ; I 
strive in every way to make you feel that I 
am personal, — that I mean you, — every unre- 
generate soul ; and for these things in Christ's 
day, they would have gnashed on me with 
their teeth and hurled me out of the city; 
while you listen so calmly, so complacently, 
that I cannot tell saint from sinner ; the men 
against whom God's curses are thundered, from 
those to whom His eternal blessing is sealed; 
the men, who through sovereign grace are 
washed, who are sanctified, who are justified in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
of our God, 1 from those who are lying in wick- 
edness," the enemies of the cross of Christ, 3 
condemned already, 4 and in instant danger of 
the vengeance of eternal fire ! 5 

Is it not a marvel ? What ails you, man, 
that nothing can rouse you — if not to feel 
right, at least to feel at all ? if not to rise and 
lay hold on eternal life, 6 at least to stir in your 

1 1 Cor., vi 11. 2 1 John, y. 19. 3 Phil., hi. 18. 
* John, hi 18. 6 Jude, vil 6 1 Tim., vi. 12. 



90 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

tomb, and give us some token for hope that 
you are not already past feeling, 1 — blind, deaf, 
dead, spiritually, utterly, everlastingly dead ! 

Oh, for a pulse of life in those frozen 
hearts ! A flush of blood, even though it 
were angry blood, in those pale cheeks ! Give 
me Saul breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 
ters, rather than Gallio caring for none of 
these thiogs. 2 Some arrow of truth has pierced 
the heart of Saul or he would not rage so ; 
and soon you read of him as Paul the Apostle. 
But I fear Gallio went on in his careless way, 
till the pains of hell made him care for ever. 

" I came to break your head," said a man 
once to Whitefield, " but by the grace of God 
you have broken my heart." That was a vile 
purpose to go to church with, but if he had 
gone in a complacent frame, and quietly slept 
or coolly criticised the preacher, it would have 
been far worse. He would not have carried 
away that priceless treasure — a broken heart. 

If what we say is true, why do you not act 
upon it? If false, how can you bear to be 
charged with it? If our charges are false, 

1 Bph., iv. 19. 2 Acts, ix. 1 ; xviil 1*7. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 91 

they are also insulting and outrageous. If 
you believe them to be false, your conduct, in 
hearing them so calmly, and coming back to 
hear them again, and even sometimes applaud- 
ing us for the vehement way in which we as- 
sail and denounce you, is perfectly astonish- 
ing. Why look at it ! You gather in a church 
on a Sabbath morning, and we strip away all 
your hopes, one by one; we weigh all your 
moralities and good deeds in the scale of 
God's law, and, by God's authority, write 
" wanting" on every one -, 1 we cast the light 
of heaven on your boasted righteousness, and 
the comely robe, in which you were so confi- 
dently wrapped, turns to rags and filthiness ; 2 
we press on into your very heart, and in God's 
name, pronounce it deceitful above all things 
and desperately wicked; 3 and when we have 
left you thus naked, helpless, guilty and with- 
out hope, we show you the storm which death, 
devils and hell are urging on, and which waits 
only for the nod of the sin-avenging God 
whom you have made your enemy, and are 
now provoking to sweep you as chaff into 
1 Rom., iii. 20. 2 Isa., lxiv. 6. 3 Jer., xvii. 9. 



92 BLIND BARTTMEUS. 

ruin beyond redemption j 1 — and believing all 
this to be false, you bear it, and go out smil- 
ing, and say that was a good sermon, and you 
like to bear a man preach that way; and that 
night or the next Sabbath you come back to 
hear the same things again ! 

Or if you say you believe these things to 
be true, your conduct is still more amazing. 
If true, they should concern you iDfmitely : 
yet you are not concerned at all. If true, 
they are of eternal weight, and should over- 
ride every business, care and pleasure in the 
world ; yet the lightest trifle of time overrides 
them, and tramples them in the dust and 
buries them in utter forgetfulness. You will 
call Bartimeus a fool if he does not try to get 
his eyes opened this very day. But what 
name will you reserve for yourselves, if, while 
I this day, as one of these ambassadors of 
God, offer you pardon and healing and eternal 
life through Jesus Christ, who now passes by 
to bestow them, you once more refuse the 
Saviour, and go on as before toward perdi- 
tion? 

1 Job, xxl 18. 



BLIXD BARTIMEUS. 93 

But Bartimeus is no fool. As he hears he 
acts. " Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," say 
the multitude, and straightway the blind eyes 
fill with tears, the faded cheeks flash with 
hope, the hands are out-stretched in supplica- 
tion, and his very soul pours out in the cry, 
"Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me !" 

II. This reveals to us the second mark of 
right hearing; — It fills a man with earnestness. 
If he has heard such truth as he ought, he not 
only acts, but acts with energy. Thus Barti- 
meus acted. " When he heard he cried out." 
The word means a great and strong cry. The 
multitude was around him ; but he cared not 
for that. They were mostly strangers to him ; 
but he cared not for that. Those who did 
know him knew him as a beggar ; but he 
cared not for that. He had never been in the 
presence of Christ before ; but even this did 
not deter him. Beggar as he was, he " cried 
out" before Him, before them all. He felt 
too deeply the bitterness of blindness, the 
misery of poverty, the degradation of beg- 
gaiy, to think of these things. 

So it must be with you, sinners. If you 



94 BLISTD BAETIMEUS. 

would enter heaven you must be in earnest 
about it. 1 Men were brought on beds to Christ 
to be healed," but no man ever went to heaven 
lying on his bed and borne on the shoulders 
of others. In the preparations needful for gain- 
ing heaven,! find an account of many pieces 
of hard armor/ but no mention of a bed. 
There they rest in their beds, 4 but our rest is 
not yet. You will never wake up some fine 
morning and find yourself pious. The great 
change will not steal softly over you while 
you sit at ease. You must be awake, and up, 
and at it. You must strive, says Christ; 5 — 
Strive like a wrestler who has his foe and his 
match ; — Strive like a runner, when the race 
is long and the runners many, and but one 
can win ; — Strive as the soldier, when the 
conflict is sharp, and he who conquers not 
must die. 6 Such is the Scripture usage of 
that '* striving' by which we enter into life. 
The word is full of earnestness, — y A.yuvi&oQe, — 
earnestness even to c agony V 

1 Mat, xi. 12. 2 Mark, ii. 2, 3. 3 Eph., vi. 11-18. 
4 Isa>, lvii. 2. 5 Luke, xiii. 24. 

6 1 Cor., ix. 24-27 ; 1 Tim., vi. 12. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 95 

Let us now see how this earnestness found 
expression. So shall we have another mark 
of true hearing. 

III. When the gospel is heard aright, it 
leads to prayer. This was the first thing Bar- 
timeus did, when he was told that Jesus was 
passing by, — he prayed. And this is always 
the first thing for a lost sinner who hears of 
Christ, — let him pray. A soul truly in ear- 
nest after salvation will cry for help. If a 
man feels his just exposure to wrath, he will 
be full of anguish, and his anguish will con- 
strain him to cry out. For what is prayer 
but human need craving the divine fulness, 
the wretchedness of earth begging the conso- 
lations of heaven, man's guilt beseeching the 
mercy of God? By prayer the helplessness 
of the creature clings to the strength of the 
Creator. Prayer is a voice from nature's 
wound calling to the heavenly Healer. 

Self-preservation is the first law of nature, 
and when our strength fails, prayer is nature's 
messenger for helpers. It may be the shriek 
of fright, the scream of torture, the imploring 
eye, the quivering lip, the clasped hands, the 



96 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

pleading tongue, or any of the thousand 
forms by which heart speaks to heart ; — these 
are nature's prayers. 

And when did nature fail to pray in her 
need? Hunger will beg and pain cry out. 
Though the fever have caused madness, the 
sufferer will still cry for water. None need 
teach the babe to clamor for its nurture. 
Birds can plead for their young, and the dog 
entreat you, with all the power of speech, to 
follow him to the forest where his master lies 
robbed and bleeding. 

And has the soul no voice in its sickness 
unto death ? Is the instinct of the brute a 
sure guide, and do the reason and conscience 
of men slumber or lie ? Or are they quick- 
sighted and honest about bodily wants and 
earthly things, only to show themselves utterly 
besotted, when glory, honor and immortality 
are at stake? When your souls are in jeo- 
pardy, must you be plied with such urgency, 
before you will cry for help ? Alas, I see you 
lying in the arms of Satan, bound hand and 
foot with his hellish fetters, and borne swiftly 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 97 

away into liis region of outer darkness. 1 His 
cruel eye glares on you, in anticipation of the 
tortures he will soon begin on your helpless 
soul. Further and further from hope and 
heaven he bears you, the frown of Grod is on 
you, and the shadows of night are deepening 
around you. Thicker grows the gloom, when 
flash ! flash ! shoot up the flames of hell, as it 
is moved from beneath to meet you at your 
coming. Ah, why are you not terrified ? Why 
do we hear no cry of alarm, no call for help ? 
Does your soul know no law of self-preserva- 
tion? Has it no instinct of terror? Does 
Eeason see nothing fearful in the blackness of 
darkness, the pangs of undying remorse, the 
torments of unquenchable fire ? 2 Can it be 
that you believe these things ? You say you 
do, but can it be, when they do not move you 
to prayer? "When God calls you from the 
secret place of thunder, 3 shall His voice be 
unregarded? When He declares that these 
things truly describe your woful state, will you 

1 1 John, v. 19; "lieth in wickedness;" rather, (it is gen- 
erally agreed,) ;i inthe Wicked One." 2 Tim., ii. 26.; Eph., 
ii. 2. 2 Jude, 13 ; Mark, ix. 43, 44, 45, 46, 4*7, 48. 

3 Psalm lxxxi. *l. 



98 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

give Him the lie by your indifference, and 
still sleep on as you fast post to hell ? 

Sinners, be entreated to pray. You must 
pray or perish. No sinner ever went to heaven 
without prayer. God's curse is on the prayer- 
less. The tongue that will not call on Him 
for mercy, shall consume in the fires of His 
wrath. Sleep now or not, you will not sleep 
long. If the voice of grace, sometimes warn- 
ing, sometimes inviting, cannot wake you and 
bring you to your knees, God will try the 
voice of unmixed vengeance. He will see 
whether the shout of the archangel and the 
trump of God will fail. Ah! then you will 
wake, to sleep no more. Then you will come 
to your knees, for the weight of the Omnipo- 
tent hand will bring you down. The stoutest 
devil will bend and you will crouch beside 
him, for God has sworn by Himself that to 
Him every knee shall bow. 1 Then you will 
pray, but you had as well not, only you can- 
not help it. 2 You will pray like Dives, 3 — 
pray even to a man ; you who now will not 
pray to God ; pray for a drop of water, you 

1 Is., xlv. 23. 2 Prov., i. 24-28. 3 Luke, xvi. 23-26. 



BLIXD BARTIMEUS. 99 

who now will not pray for heaven ; pray for 
that poor drop at the hand of a despised beg- 
gar, you who now will not accept infinite 
blessings from the Hand that made the world, 
and was nailed to the Cross for our salvation ! 
Thus shall you praj^. But how will the an- 
swer pierce you with remorse and freeze you 
in despair. " Son, remember !" Compelled re- 
membrance is the deathless sting of remorse. 
"A great gulf fixed !" There is the necessity 
and seal of unending despair. Pray then, 
pray! while you hear that "Jesus of Naza- 
reth passeth by." 

IV. And do it at once. Promptness is an- 
other mark of a good hearer of the gospel. It 
is found in Bartimeus. " And when he heard," 
that is, as soon as he heard, "he began to cry 
out." 

But what need of such haste? "Jesus is 
going slowly," he might say, " and some little 
while must pass before He is gone. Be sure 
I will be in time." 

Do you never reason so ? " There is time 
enough yet. My life goes slowly ; my health 
is firm ; I shall certainly be in time." 



100 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Your life ! your health ! 

" Great G-od ! on what a slender thread 
Hang everlasting things !" 

" Or if he does get a little out of sight," 
Bartimeus might say, " while I am attending 
to some little matters, I will run after Him 
and call Him. I will never think of let- 
ting Him get out of hearing. I will be in 
time." 

And is not this your way ? Are you not 
letting mercies and opportunities slip by, and 
running the frightful risk that they may all 
pass away, and leave you on a death-bed, to 
call, in helpless agitation and dismay, for Sab- 
baths and sermons and Jesus Christ, rejected 
often, and now gone beyond your call — gone 
for ever ? 

" But I only want a little time, and that for 
most important business," Bartimeus might 
plead. 

Why man, what business can you have now, 
but getting your blind eyes opened? 

" that is the chief thing to be sure, and I 
mean to attend to that. It would never do to 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 101 

neglect that greatest of matters. Ah, would 
that they were open now ! But really, I must 
go about in this crowd for a few minutes, 
and collect what alms I can. I must live I" 

Before any of you undertakes to rebuke 
this supposed reply too harshly, see if he had 
not more cause than you think, for such a 
course ; nay, if he had not all the reasons 
that men now urge for neglecting their salva- 
tion. 

Begging was his regular business, the only 
way he had of supporting himself, and possi- 
bly, a helpless family. Is not that excuse 
thought a good one in this clay ? Did you 
never use it? Is it not often heard in this 
form? — " I am in a business in which I can't 
be a Christian. I am connected with the rail- 
road, or the Post-Office, and am required to 
labor on the Sabbath. I am very sorry it is 
so, and I mean some day to get out of it and 
attend to religion." 

Would to God our groaning land were de- 
livered from the curse of Sunday mails and 
Sunday railway trains, and all the oppressions 
and abominations they drag after them ! But 
9* 



102 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

while they last, the duty of men, who fear 
God and mean to save their souls, is clear; 
and that is, to protest against them, pray 
against them, and above all, stand aloof from 
. them, if they would not have the blood of 
God's "murdered Sabbaths" staining their 
skirts and crying from the ground for ven- 
geance, Whatever your business, if it stands 
in the way of your serving Gocl, it is wrong, 
and yon must give it up, or keep it at the cost 
of losing Christ. 1 It may try you sorely, but 
you had better pluck out a right eye, or cut 
off a right hand, than be cast into hell.'' 

I miss the honest face of a German, who 
used to be in his seat every Sabbath morning 
and night, listening anxiously to the "Word of 
God. For many years he had faithfully served 
one of our railroad companies through seven 
days of the week. But at length his conscience 
was awakened, and he could no longer serve 
them on the Sabbath. Six days he would 
labor hard, but God's day he must have for 
God. So he gave up his place. It was in the 
winter of 1854-5 too, when thousands of 

1 Mat, xl 24; xvi. 24. 2 Mat,, v, 29, 30. 



BLDTC) BARTIMEU3. 103 

workmen were thrown out of employment, 
and when men already out had almost no 
hope of getting in. But in the face of all 
this he gave up his place. Then month after 
month passed by, and brought no relief; not 
one dollar could he earn. The savings of 
years of toil were fast consuming, and soon 
his family would be suffering, and still he 
could not get employment Then his old 
place was offered him, and it was a sore temp- 
tation. But God's Law stood up in his way, 
and bade him beware. So he was strength- 
ened, and still trusted in God and obeyed His 
Word. For Ion q; months more were his faith 
and patience tried, until at last, with a reluc- 
tant but determined heart, he left the city, and 
sought in the far West a new home, where 
by the sweat of his brow he might earn his 
bread, and still have " freedom to worship 
God" 

If all true men would do likewise, God 
would soon right their wrongs. He would 
teach our government and these huge corpo- 
rations that, though they- have joined hand in 
hand to defy the God of heaven, they shall 



104 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

not go unpunished. He is yet a God that 
judgeth in the earth. As they tempt men to 
transgression, He will brand them with the 
curse of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who 
made Israel to sin. 1 He will set His face 
against them in dreadful Providences. He 
has dealt with our nation as He did with 
Israel of old, in great goodness. We may 
yet have to learn, as they have, in exile and 
tears, His severity also. 2 And these powerful 
companies will find that, if their requirements 
and God's come in conflict, their best servants 
will leave them, and then their places of high 
trust must be filled by those who fear not God, 
and therefore regard not man, 3 and then swift 
damage and ruin must come upon them, until 
they repent and learn righteousness. 

Meantime, let all who suffer for conscience' 
sake take this good word of Christ for their 
consolation ; Verily I say unto you, there is 
no man that hath left house, or parents, or 
brethren, or wife, or children for the King- 
dom of God's sake, who shall not receive mani- 

1 1 Kings, xii. 26-30 ; xiii. 34. 2 Eom., xi. 22. 

8 Luke, xviii. 4. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 105 

fold more in this present time, and in the 
world to come, life everlasting! 1 

But if Bartimeus choose to attend to his 
alms instead of his eyes, see if he has not a 
still stronger reason. Begging is not only his 
business, but this happens to be a very " busy 
season," as we say in the city, or " harvest- 
time," as they say in the country. A multi- 
tude was passing! When had he such a 
chance before ? He waits day after day, glad 
of an occasional traveller ; bufc to-day the peo- 
ple pour along in crowds, and can he afford to 
leave his business now ? Sight is no doubt a 
very good thing ; but suppose all these people 
should give him even a penny a-piece, — think 
of that ! He might go home almost rich, — 
might almost retire from business ! And after 
all has not Providence given him this oppor- 
tunity, and would it be exactly right to throw 
it away ? 

So have I heard professors of religion and 
non-professors reason. So do they put earth's 
business above all the calls of God. With 
such words do some members of the Church 

1 Luke, xviii. 29, 30. 



106 BLEST!) BARTIMEUS. 

throw all the active work of the Church on 
some one else ; yes, on others as busy as you, 
or at least, as busy as you have any right to 
be. They redeem time, or take time at a sa- 
crifice, which you could take, and should, and 
would, if your hearts were right before God. 
Some of you make business and busy seasons, 
(which seem to last most of the year,) an ex- 
cuse for not seeking God, and some, for not 
serving Him, despite all your professions and 
vows. Some of you are too much pressed 
ever to get to prayer-meetings, or the services 
before the holy Communion, to do any of 
the work of the Church, by which her influ- 
ence is enlarged, her wheels are made to move 
on, and by which your graces might be en- 
riched and manifested. 

In the dark ages men sometimes sold them- 
selves by deliberate compact to the devil. For 
so much wealth or honor he should have their 
souls. Men rarely do that now, I suppose, in 
any formal way. But this busy age, busy 
country, and busy city, are binding them in 
chains, and sealing them for hell, as surely as 
any infernal sorceries. When men say they 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 107 

have no time for religion, while they acknowl- 
edge its divine claims, they really say, " Busi- 
ness, be thou my God !' I devote myself to 
thee," 

.Men of the world ! You must take time 
for religion, or eternity for remorse. If you 
take the world for your service, you must 
take hell for your reward. 1 

Men of the Church ! Your whole time is 
God's, and you must use it for His glory, so 
as to satisfy, not only your ungodly business- 
partner, and your torpid conscience, but the 
severities of the Judgment Bar. If you do 
not always make the world's calls yield to 
Christ's, then you deny your Saviour and 
belie your profession. 2 

But let me no longer misrepresent Barti- 
meus, even in supposition. He delays not, 
but makes haste. 

Christ is passing, and he may be too late, 
and therefore he is in haste. 

He is blind and feels the misery of blind- 
ness, and therefore he is in haste. 

If he begs first, Christ may be insulted by 

i Luke, xvi. 25. 2 Mat, x. 37-39. 



108 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

this putting of filthy lucre before His healing 
power, and so may refuse the blessing when 
it is sought, 1 and therefore he is in haste. 

And sinner, be you in haste. There is a 
limit to God's long-suffering. He will not see 
His calls made light of for ever. He will not 
stand waiting all the day long. His Provi- 
dence and grace will move on. His voice will 
be silent. He will noiselessly withdraw, and 
you shall call after Him and grope after Him 
for ever, but never find Him again ! 2 

Y. and VI. Two other marks of a good 
hearer of the gospel are found in Bartimeus. 
He heard with Faith and Humility. He trust- 
ed in Jesus and was lowly in heart. He felt 
his need and looked to Christ for aid. Humil- 
ity laid him in the dust, while Faith reached 
up and took hold on the strength of the Ee* 
deemer. 

His faith even outran the word of the mul- 
titude. They spoke of " Jesus of Nazareth," 
— Nazareth of Galilee — a despised town of 
a despised province; but he could call Him 
" Son of David," and "Lord." In these words 

1 Ileb., xii. 16. 11. * Prov., i. 24-31. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 109 

he hailed Him as the Messiah, the promised 
Messiah of God, of whom Isaiah had foretold 
that He should open the eyes of the blind. 1 
Though Nathanael might ask, Can any good 
thing come out of Nazareth ? 2 and the Phari- 
sees assert that, Out of Galilee there ariseth no 
prophet, 3 this poor blind man had an eye ot 
faith which saw in Him, the great descend- 
ant of David who should redeem Israel,— Da- 
vid's Son and David's Lord. 4 He believed too 
that He was now passing by, and that He had 
power enough and love enough to open his 
eyes. This was his simple faith, and by this 
he took hold on Christ for deliverance. 

And how deep was his humility ! He hid 
nothing, pretended nothing. He came as he 
was. Blind, he came as blind. Poor, he 
came as poor. A beggar, he came as a beg- 
gar. He set up no claim as of right. He told 
of no good deed. But needy and wretched 
and helpless and unworthy, he cast himself 
on the tender heart of Christ ; " Jesus, Son 
of David, have mercy on me ! Lord ; Son 
of David, have mercy on me !" 

1 Is., xxxv. 5 ; xlil 7. 2 John. i. 46. 

3 John, vii. 52 4 Mat., xxii. 45. 

10 



110 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

But is this the whole lesson? When we 
have found both faith and humility in this 
prayer, are we to view them apart only ? May 
either be absent, and are they here in friendly 
meeting but by chance ? 

No : the prayer has a deeper and more 
precious teaching. Faith and humility are so 
blended in it, that none can say how much is 
one, and how much the other. If faith is 
more manifest in the titles he gives Christ, 
yet humility is not wanting ; and if humility 
shines brightest in his asking for " mercy," 
faith is seen in his simple reliance on that 
mercy. 

And so it is always. Faith and humility 
meet in the sinner's experience, not as occa- 
sional companions only ; they ever walk lov- 
ingly together as sisters. They cannot separate. 
Like the Siamese twins they live in each other's 
presence alone; should they part, they would 
die. A sinner cannot believe in Jesus and 
not be humble; he cannot be truly humble 
without believing in Jesus. 

This is most needful for a sinner to know ; 
for when seeking Christ, he fears it would be 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. Ill 

presumptuous to believe and rest on. Christ at 
once. So lie still stays away and tries to pre- 
pare himself for Christ. He thinks that this 
is true humility ; but it is only pride in dis- 
guise, and so deceiving him. 

"Alas, I am lost," begins the sinner, "what 
shall I do to be saved ? m 

u Come to me," says Christ, " I came to seek 
and save that which was lost." 2 

" But how can I come? I am a sinner." 

"Come because you are a sinner. I came 
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance." 3 

" But I am such a sinner," says this false 
humility, (for you see it dares dispute with 
Christ,) "there never was a heart as bad as 
mine." 

" The greater your sin, the greater your 
need of me," says Christ, " and do not fear, 
for I came into the world to save sinners, even 
the chief. This is a faithful saying, and wor- 
thy of all acceptation." 4 

" But my heart is so hard" 

1 Acts, xvi. 30. 2 Luke, xix. 10. 

3 Luke, v. 32. 4 1 Tim., i. 15. 



112 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

" Then give it to me, and I will soften it, 
I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of 
flesh." 1 

"But I do not even feel my sins as I 
ought," continues this disputatious, arrogant 
humility. 

u And you never will," answers Christ, 
"until you have a new heart; come to me, 
and I will give you one." 2 

" But I cannot see any tiling good in my 
heart ; I am too unworthy ; I have no faith, no 
love." 

"Then come without them," says Christ, 
" and I will give them to you." a 

But the heart is not ready to give up yet, 
and take Christ just at His word. It cannot 
understand that it is to go to Christ with ab- 
solutely nothing to recommend it, and so it 
toils on with huge pains and anxiety, to do 
something, or be something, or feel something, 
which shall make it more fit to come to Christ. 
So after a while Christ comes again and says 
very kindly, " Poor heart, you can never 

1 Ezek, xxxvi. 26. 2 Ibid, 3 Gal., v. 22, with Acts, ii. 33. 



BLIXD BARTTMEUS. 113 

make yourself better. Only I can do that. 
If you come at all, it must be just as you 
are." 

" Alas ! alas ! I wish I could, but I seem to 
get worse and worse." 

" But do you believe, or not, that I am able 
to save you?" says Christ. 

11 Oh, yes ! You are able, but /am so un- 
worthy." 

And so this blind self-righteousness reasons 
round and round in a circle, and still comes 
back to the same fatal point, and though very 
sad, takes a secret comfort in being so very 
humble ! 

Now Christ comes again, and speaks search- 
ing words, but very patiently ; " Blind and 
stubborn heart, I will show you a little of 
yourself. You say you believe I am able to 
save all sinners ; able to save you. But you 
do not, or you would trust me to be your 
Saviour. You could trust me to save a softer 
heart, or a better heart, or a heart that felt 
more ; but not your hard, wicked heart. Does 
not this limit my power, my grace, my blood ? 
Am I a Saviour for little sins, and not for 
10* 



114 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

great? 1 Does your unworthiness overtop my 
Kighteousness? 2 Does my blood fail for your 
heart ? 3 My Righteousness and blood are in- 
finite, 4 and do you stretch up to measure them 
and find them wanting ? I say I can save 
you, and what arrogance it is that denies it ! 
What boundless piesumption ! If you were 
better you would come, you say. Yes ; you 
are too proud to come as other sinners. You 
must needs be an exception. You cannot be 
altogether indebted to grace, A little wor- 
thiness must be found, for the glory and com- 
fort of your self- righteousness. Abase yourself 
in the dust, and come just as you are." 

If these cutting words of Christ slay the 
sinner's pride, true humility fills his heart. 
It dares not dispute with Christ, or think of 
making any change in His plan of grace 3 
amazing as its freeness seems. It just takes 
Him at His word, and says, 

" Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, 
Lamb of God, I come ! 

1 Isa., L 18. 2 Horn., x. 4. 3 1 John, i. 1. 

4 Jer., xxiii. 6 ; Heb., vii. 25. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 115 

11 Just as I am, and waiting not, 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
Lamb of God, I come ! 

" Just as I am, — poor, wretched, blind — 
Sight, riches, healing of the mind, 
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find, 

Lamb of God, I come I" 

Thus do these holy sisters, Faith and Hu- 
mility, go together to Christ. When Hu- 
mility, looking down upon her sins, would 
faint in the way, Faith feels the pressure of 
her drooping form, and lifting her own clear 
eye to the glories of Christ, bids her look 
to Him and be comforted. And even Faith 
grows bolder, when Humility in her turn 
■whispers, "Do not fear; though our sins are 
many, 1 He can cleanse them. If He says 
Come, we cannot but take Him at His word." 
And Humility grows lowlier, when Faith 
drawing near, and fixing her eye on Calvary, 
says, "Oh sister, against what a Saviour we 
have sinned!" 

1 Psalm ciii. 3, 11 ; Luke, yil 41. 



IV. 



" And many charged him that he should hold his peace ; but 
he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have 
mercy upon me!" 




)HEEB is never a knock at heaven's 
gate, but it sounds through hell, and 
devils come out to silence it. 1 When- 
ever a soul is striving for heaven, or 
heaven striving for a soul, which is 
but another side of the same truth, there two 
worlds are at strife. 2 The Mohammedans 
have a saying that, whenever two persons 
meet, there is always a third. The proverb 
refers to the presence of God. But it is just 
as true that when God and a human soul meet 
on business for eternity, Satan will be there. 
He will be there as an opposer and destroyer. 3 
All souls are his at first, 4 for by nature we are 

1 1 Pet, v. 8. 2 Mat., xiii. 37, 39 ; Eph., vi. 11, 12 ; 

1 John, iv. 4. 3 2 Cor., ii. 11 ; Luke, viii. 12. 

4 Eph., ii. 2 ; John, viii. 44. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 117 

children of wrath j 1 and he never lets his own 
go without a struggle. 2 He hath the cheek- 
teeth of a great lion, and it is not easy to rend 
the prey from his mouth. 3 

Both Christ and Satan came on earth as 
destroyers ; Satan to destroy the works of 
God, but Christ to destroy Ms destructions 
and the destroyer himself. 4 And so we must 
look for war on the earth, and must ourselves 
take part in the battle, if we mean to go to 
heaven. 5 The kingdom of heaven suffereth 
violence, and the violent taketh it by force. 6 

The children of Israel sang bravely on the 
shore of the Eed Sea, and behaved themselves 
stoutly. They seemed just ready to go up 
and possess the promised land. But the 
howling wilderness soon shut up their song, 
and when they began to hear of giants and 
war chariots of iron, and cities walled up to 
heaven, their craven hearts died within them, 
and for base safety, beside full flesh-pots, they 
were ready to slink back into slavery. 7 

1 Eph., ii. 3. 2 Mark, ix. 20, 25, 26. 

3 Mark, ix. 29. 4 Rev., xii. 12 ; Heb., ii. 14 ; 1 John, iii. 8. 
5 Eph., vi 11-13. e Mat. xi. 12. 

7 Ex., xv. 1-21. ; xyi 1-3 ; Deut., i. 21, 28. 



118 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

The giants are not all dead yet, and if a 
pilgrim do but show himself, going toward 
the City of God, out they come to give him 
battle. So, those who mean to serve Christ ; 
may as well make up their minds at once to 
meet opposition. 1 

Bartimeus had sad proof of this. As soon 
as he began to cry out for mercy, rebukes 
rained down upon him from all sides. Satan 
raised a clamor, and tried to beat him down. 
Am I not right in ascribing this opposition to 
the old murderer, though men were his agents? 
What was the offence? A sightless beggar 
beseeches the compassion of the Heavenly 
Physician. He has never been near Him be- 
fore. This is the only opportunity of his life. 
A word or touch can heal him, and in a sud- 
den agony of earnestness, he begs the blessed 
stranger to pity him, — said I not rightly, that 
none but a devil would have bidden him hold 
his peace ? 

But Satan hides while he works. He is 
sometimes like a lion roaring on his prey, 2 
but oftener a serpent gliding in the grass, 
1 2 Tim., iil 12. 2 1 Pet, v. 8. 



BLIND BARTDtEUS. 119 

biting, gone. 1 He can even put on the form 
of an angel of light, 8 and here he wears the 
guise of the followers of Christ. 

There is a manifold, hellish craft in this. 
He conceals himself, puts the shame of his 
deeds on the cause of God, destroys his vic- 
tims more easily and surely because his hand 
is not seen, corrupts all who do his work, and 
thus brings them under his own condemna- 
tion, and fills many who see what is done, with 
such prejudice against the cause and followers 
of Christ, that they too are ruined. 

The ungodly world bids anxious souls to 
hold their peace. It cannot bear the sinner's 
distress. If his conscience is disturbed its own 
is not quite eas} T . If he cries out through 
fear of the wrath to come, 3 a shudder passes 
through its heart. If he speaks of heaven, it 
is not ready, it feels, for that, and its own joys 
look pale in that pure light. If the weight 
of eternal concernments smite him amidst its 
gay throngs, it has the unpleasant effect of the 
sudden death of an actor in the Theatre. The 
play goes on, to be sure, but the applause is 
1 2 Cor., xL 3. 2 2 Cor., xi. 14 3 Mat,ifi. 1. 



120 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

not hearty, and a chill shadow damps the 
mirth. The tragedy is gloomy and the com- 
edy hollow. 

Therefore the world sets itself to make an 
end of these convictions. For this it has in- 
numerable devices. It will flatter,- or curse. 
For some it has persecutions, for others pro- 
motions. Now it laughs with irresistible mer- 
riment ; now dazzles with deceitful splendors, 
and now cuts one's acquaintance with a sneer. 
It bewilders the reason with sophistry, and 
bewitches the senses w r ith voluptuousness. 
And two other foes it brings into the field for 
the silencing of crying souls, — Infidelity, with 
its thousand ' phases/ (changing every day,) 
its flippancy, its sarcasms, its dogmatism, 
(which never change ;) and Atheism, with its 
sullen front and frozen heart. 

But I pause not on any of these. I wish 
now to address the professed people of God. I 
pray you heed an honest warning. 

I say then plainly : You are in great danger, 
every day, of rebuking anxious souls, and 
charging them to hold their peace. I do not 
say you do it wittingly. It is a sin so awful, 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 121 

so unnatural, so cruel, that every lover of the 
Saviour must utterly abhor it. Yet even 
Christ's true friends may commit it carelessly 
and unconsciously. Bear then some cau- 
tions. 

I. By injudicious criticism of sermons you 
may stifle convictions and drive sinners away 
from Christ. 

We do not refuse to be tried by honest 
and enlightened judgments ; and when we 
hear their verdict, it should give us little con- 
cern, except to learn how we may become 
wiser and more faithful stewards of the mys- 
teries of God. 1 But we charge our hearers 
not to forget that, however humble our abili- 
ties, if we are in our place at all, we are Am- 
bassadors for Christ, 2 standing in His room, 
making known His terms of pardon ; and 
that, so far as we preach the Word, 3 He will 
take its vindication into His own hands, and 
avenge it of every slight and all contempt. 4 

Nay more ; when we preach Christ cruci- 
fied, our message is the power of Grod, by 

1 1 Cor., iv. 1. 2 2 Cor., v. 20. 

3 2 Tim., iv. 2. 4 Luke, x 16 ; ix. 26. 

11 



122 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

which alone sinners can be saved ; but your 
criticisms may turn it into very foolishness, 
and a stumbling-block, and the savor of death 
to some beloved one for whose salvation you 
have been striving. 1 

I cannot better illustrate this caution than 
by a true narrative from " The Central Pres- 
byterian." " A pious lady once left a church 
in this city, [Eichmond,] in company with her 
husband, who was not a professor of religion. 
She was a woman of unusual vivacity, with 
a keen perception of the ludicrous, and often 
playfully sarcastic. As they walked along to- 
ward home, she began to make some amus- 
ing and spicy comments on the sermon, which 
a stranger, a man of very ordinary talents and 
awkward manner, had preached, that morn- 
ing, in the absence of the pastor. After run- 
ning on in this vein of sportive criticism for 
some time, surprised at the profound silence 
of her husband, she turned and looked up in 
his face. He was in tears. That sermon had 
sent an arrow of conviction to his heart! 
What must have been the anguish of the 

1 Cor., i. 23, 24; 2 Cor., ii. 16. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 123 

conscience-stricken wife, thus arrested in the 
act of ridiculing a discourse which had been 
the means of awakening the anxiety of her 
unconverted husband I" 

Watch then, your words and spirit. Take 
care what you say, and before whom you say 
it. Are you about to speak in love, in hu- 
mility, in the temper of Christ? "Will any 
one be the better for what you say ? Will 
your criticisms deepen your child's or your 
friend's reverence for Christ's Ambassadors, 
and God's chosen instrument for saving souls? 
When you have said what you wish, will you 
become thereby fellow-helpers to the truth? 1 
If not, oh, leave it all unsaid, lest in criticising 
the flaws of the earthen vessel, you be found 
to have despised the heavenly treasure ; 2 lest 
you turn aside the sword of the Spirit, 3 and 
with great sin to yourself, bring destruction 
on some most precious soul. 

II. Beware also of unseasonable levity after 
solemn appeals. 

I do not warn you against cheerfulness. It 
is pleasant to see the faces of God's people 

i 3 John 8. 2 2 Cor., iv. 1. s Eph., vl 11. 



124 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

beaming with the secret refreshments of the 
Spirit, or reflecting the glories which ' shine 
from between the cherubim. 1 But this sacred 
rejoicing is no more like levity, than the clear 
diffused light of morning is like the flash 
of shaken tinsel. Cheerfulness is the genial 
warmth of the Sun of Eighteousness ; 2 levity 
the crackling of thorns under a pot. 3 One is 
the voice of rejoicing which becometh the 
tabernacles of the righteous, 4 the other the 
laughter of fools, fit only for the tents of 
wickedness. 6 Cheerfulness can mingle with 
solemnity, just as the clear heavens may be 
solemn with night, yet cheerful with stars. 

A Christian can sit in God's House, and 
relish all the truths of His Word. He may 
indeed often hear what is immediately dis- 
tressing. Unlike the little book which the 
angel gave John, it may be bitter and pain- 
ful in the mouth, that is, in the hearing; yet 
being mixed with faith, it shall through grace 
be sweet and wholesome in the digestion. 6 In 
the very thunders of Sinai he will hear the 

1 Ps. lxxx. 1. 2 Mai., iv. 2. s Eccl., vil 6. 

4 Ps. cxviii. 15. 5 Ps. lxxxiv. 10. 6 Rev., x. 9. 



BLINI> BABTMEUS. 125 

voice of his covenant God, 1 and prostrate 
himself in holy abasement. If God be set 
forth as a consuming fire, 2 taking vengeance, 
he will confess that this is but his own desert ; 3 
and while adoring the sovereign grace which 
has saved him from wrath, he will be grieved 
for transgressors, 4 and weep for them, and pray 
for them ; and when the congregation breaks 
up, and he meets them face to face, there will 
be something in his eye and voice and pressure 
of the hand, which will touch sinners to the 
heart, with a sense of their own danger, and 
the affectionate anxiety of God's people. 

How different the conduct of many profes- 
sors ! They may be dull enough while the 
word is preached, but when the benediction 
is pronounced, how relieved and lively they 
seem ! "With what alacrity they address them- 
selves to the business of leaving the Church ! 
"With what sprightliness are the aisles sud- 
denly animated ! And so with jests and 
vanity and levity they go to their homes, sit 
at their tables, and hold mirthful converse 
with their unconverted children and friends. 

1 Ex. l xx. 2. 2 Heb., xii. 29. 3 Ps. li. 4. * p a cx i x . 153 
11* 



126 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

All 1 in some breast at that table the struggle 
for eternity may have begun ; the Spirit of 
God and the powers of darkness may be en- 
gaged in their final conflict, and this foolish 
jesting may decide it for despair and hell ! 
"What a fearful truth ! One may laugh away 
the Holy Grhost and all conviction of sin, 
laugh the awakened conscience to sleep and 
precious souls to perdition ! 

III. This brings to mind another way by 
which you may bid sinners hold their peace, 
— by blindness to any beginning concern. 

If you do not watch for the Spirit, He may 
pass by unseen. If He is not cherished, He 
may pass away. A great part of this cher- 
ishing work belongs to you, as disciples of 
Christ and friends of the Spirit. By mere ne- 
glect you may ruin the work in which you 
were called to be workers together with God. 1 
You fail to come up to the help of the Lord, 2 
and so 3^ our friend may be lost. 

Would you see how you should watch? 
Come with me to the chamber where a babe 
lies dying. A breathless messenger has gone 

1 2 Cor., vi. 1. 2 Judges, v. 23. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 127 

for the physician, but still lie comes not. How 
the worn mother gazes on her little sufferer in 
an agon j of fondness and fear ; how she sinks 
in anguish before the mercy-seat, and pleads 
like the Syrophenician woman at the feet of 
Jesus j 1 how she rises wildly, and watches at 
the window for the physician ; how at every 
sound of wheels she flushes with eagerness, 
and then grows sick at heart as they turn the 
corner, and the sound dies away ; how she 
springs to the door as his well-known step is 
heard on the stair ; and then, as he searches 
every symptom, how she waits on his every 
look, living on a gleam of hope, ready to die 
if his face is darkened by a cloud ! 

O disciple of Jesus, thy child, thy brother, 
some beloved of thine, is sick unto eternal 
death; and where is this watching for the 
Great Physician ? this weeping, longing, pray- 
ing? Ah,- when He has of His own heart's 
love come near, and alarmed the dying soul 
from its fatal torpor, and prescribed His sov- 
ereign remedies, you will not even be nursing 
fathers and mothers, 2 to carry on the Lord's 

i Mat., xy. 22-28. 2 I s . ? xlix. 23. 



128 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

gracious work, and save these dear souls from 
death ! 

IV. Nor is this the worst. Professing 
parents often lay plans for their children directly 
opposed to the Spirits work. 

Let one example illustrate my meaning. In 
your morning devotions you ask God to con- 
vert your children — even on the next Sabbath 
to send His word with power to their hearts. 
Surely you should pray so ; and I will suppose 
you do. But ; before the day is over, yield- 
ing to the tide of corrupt worldliness around 
you, or the pleadings of y our unconverted chiU 
dren, you arrange for a dancing-party the next 
week, and issue your invitations. "Only a 
children's dancing-party, and only with the 
piano, you know," you say patronizingly and 
cheerfully to conscience, though somehow 
conscience looks a little blank at these nice 
distinctions, and does not return your smile. 
But let that pass. Suppose, however, God 
answers your prayer on the Sabbath, and one 
of these children weeps under the sermon, and 
comes home downcast and distressed; what 
will your condition be? To say the least, 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 129 

will you feel no embarrassment ? No temp- 
tation to seem not to have observed it, until 
your scheme is carried out? No regret even, 
that these feelings should have come just 
then? How awkward that when you had 
meant your daughter to be so bright and 
beautiful in the dance on Monday, that she 
should be convicted of sin ; and fleeing from 
God's wrath, and weeping so, on Sunday ! 
On the other hand, will you have no fear 
lest the excitements of the giddy scene shall 
quench the Spirit, 1 and harden the heart for 
ever? 2 And, besides all this, would not these 
convictions take you by surprise, and send a 
guilty pang to your heart ? Could you be, as 
you ought always to be, expecting in strong 
faith the answer of your prayers, and ready to 
bless God with a clear heart, and go in se- 
cret with this dear anxious soul, and mingle 
your tears, and together beseech Christ for 
mercy ? 

But how can I exhaust the ways by which 
professed Christians may bid troubled sinners 
hold their peace? By all your worldly- 
(S., t. 19. * Heb. ; iil 13. 



130 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

mindedness and worldly-conformity; by every 
proof you give that you think more of this 
life than of that to come ; that you will spend 
more, sacrifice more, go through more to gain 
earthly ends than for Christ and His cause ; 
by all these you become stumbling-blocks in 
the way of sinners coming to Christ. 

These too, are the things you cannot hide. 
Some very pious looks and tones for special 
seasons ; some very common-place Christian 
observations now and then ; some very general 
sighing over the fact that ' We all come short,' 
&c, &c, none of these will do. Your little 
children and your servants see the incon- 
sistency. 

O this worldliness in professors! This 
want of whole-conformity to Christ! 1 This 
is the most grievous stain on Christianity, the 
hardest argument of infidelity, the greatest 
hindrance of revivals, and their surest extin- 
guisher. Because of this hath the Lord cov- 
ered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His 
anger. For this her ways mourn, her gates 
are desolate, her priests sigh, her virgins are 

1 Bom., xii. 1, 2. 



BLIXD BAETIMEUS. 131 

afflicted, and she is in bitterness; while hex 
enemies blaspheme, and all that pass by clap 
their hands at her ; they hiss and wag their 
head at the daughter of Jerusalem I 1 

Now let me sound an honest alarm to all of 
every name and condition, who in any way 
charge convicted sinners to hold their peace. 
You are opposing the work of God, and must 
beware of His heavy arm. If you are His 
people and your opposition is unwitting, He 
will teach you needful lessons by the Voice of 
the Eod. 2 They may be very hard,' but you 
will have to learn them. 4 He will not suffer 
such sin upon you. 5 But if you are not His 
people, you shall feel his vengeance. You 
are falling on the eternal corner-stone and 
shall be broken; and unless you speedily cease 
to oppose those who would build upon it, and 
begin yourself to build there, that stone shall 
one day fall upon you and grind you to 
powder ! 6 

There is no sadder doom than theirs who 

1 Lamentations. 2 Mia, vi. 9 ; Ps. cxix. 6Y, Tl. 

3 Heb , xil 11. * Prov., iii. 12 ; Rev., iii 19. 

6 Heb., xii. 10 . 6 Mat, xxi. 44. 



132 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

lead men into sin, or keep souls from Christ. 
It is enough, to go to hell at all. But if I 
must go, let me go alone. Let me not carry 
my tormentors with me. Its fixes will be hot 
enough, and its woes heavy enough, without 
souls whom I have ruined, to heap them upon 
me in revenge for ever pitiless, and exasper- 
ated for ever by their own eternal agony. If 
I am bent on death, let me like Ahithophel, 
put my household in order and die alone/ and 
not like Samson gather the pillars of the tem- 
ple in my grasp, and drag others down with 
me, myself falling undermost and buried in 
the deepest ruin. 2 

Now let me say two things to awakened 
sinners. 

Are you thus opposed ? If you fail, this 
will not excuse you. One man's sin may be 
another's temptation and his ruin, but it can 
never be his apology. Satan tempted Eve, and 
she tempted Adam, but all three of them were 
cursed. 3 Even the heathen could say, The 
gods help those who help themselves ; and we 
may be sure that Christ will help every soul 

1 2 Sam., xvii. 23. 2 Judges, xvi. 30. 3 Gen.,iii. 12-19. 



BLIND BABTIMEUS. 133 

in earnest after Him. God has never said to 
the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. 1 Seek, 
says Christ, and ye shall find. 2 When God 
calls a soul out of Egypt, old tyrants and new 
enemies, a deep sea and a howling wilderness 
may all be in the way, but if that soul be of 
good courage it shall not fail to eat of the 
golden fruits of Canaan. 3 Neither the chosen 
people nor a chosen soul ever lost a battle 
except by cowardice or sin. For His mercy 
endureth for ever ; — twenty-six times over is 
that said in the Psalm that recounts Israel's 
redemption and triumphs. 4 At every point, 
at every danger and every battle is the story 
interrupted to say, For His mercy endureth 
for ever ! Has God said to you, Seek ye my 
face ? And has your heart replied, Thy face, 
Lord, will I seek ? 6 Then, though a host 
should encamp against you, your heart need 
not fear. Though father and mother forsake 
you, the God of your salvation will never 
leave you nor forsake you. 6 So, wait upon 

lis., xlv. 19. 2 Mat., vii. 1, 8. 

8 Joshua, v. 11, 12. 4 Ps. cxxxvi. 

5Ps. xxvii. 8. 6 Ps. xxvii. 3, 10; Heb., xiii. 5 

12 



134 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

the Lord ; be of good courage, and He shall 
strengthen your heart! Wait, I say, on the 
Lord. 1 

Are you thus opposed? Do as Bartimeus 
did. " He cried the more," says Matthew ; 
"the more a great deal," or " so much the 
more," say Mark and Luke. that is brave ! 
Opposition only rouses him to new energy. 
And so cry you. It is time to " cry out" 
when men would beat you back from Christ ; 
time to summon all your strength when the 
enemy is summoning his. See ! there is but 
one way ; the path . is narrow ; the foe is clos- 
ing in. Now soul, if thou wouldst not be 
lost, quit thyself like a man. 2 Take shield 
and sword, and lay about thee. It is now or 
never with thee. Cry unto Christ and press 
forward. And while using all thy might, still 
remember that nothing can cut through the 
foe and clear thy path to Christ, like this cry 
of faith, " Jesus, Son of David, have mercy 
•■ on me!" 

1 Ps. xxvii. 14. 2 1 Cor., xvi. 13. 



V. 



" And Jesus stood still and called him." — (Matthew.) 

" And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called." — 

(Mark.) 
11 And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto 

Him."— (Luke.) 






p^£)HEN Jesus thus " stood still/ 7 He 
was on His way for the last time to 
Jerusalem. His u hour" was draw- 
ing nigh, 1 and He was hastening to 
meet it. He knew it was to "be an 
hour of anguish and desertion, the hour and 
power of darkness. 2 He saw the cup He was 
to drink, and He knew the bitterness of every 
drop. 3 He knew He was to wrestle with the 
terrors of death and the principalities of hell, 
and bear the insufferable torments of aveng- 
ing wrath. Yet such love for sinners, such 
hatred of sin, such zeal for the vindication of 
the insulted glory of the Godhead filled and 

1 John, xvii. 1 ; Mark, xiv. 41. 2 Luke, xxii. 53. 

8 Mark, x. 32-34; Mat, xx. 22 ; xxvi. 39 ; John, xviiL 11. 



136 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

fired Him, that He was pressing on, with al- 
most impatient ardor. He was straitened, in 
an inexpressible waj r , till He had offered Him- 
self a sacrifice to Divine justice for the sins of 
His people. 1 

Never was any being in the universe on such 
a journey before. Never can even He be again. 
The redemption of the world, 2 the defeat of 
Satan, 3 and the most illustrious display of the 
Attributes of God which ever can be made, 4 the 
infinite concernments of three worlds, heaven, 
earth and hell, and the glory of the sovereign, 
eternal Godhead, all rested on Him and the 
decease He was about to accomplish at Jeru- 
salem. 5 

Can He be arrested in this journey ? Where 
is the event mighty enough to stay His course? 
"What destiny of man or empire is worthy 
even of a thought from Him now ? Shall 
not the vision of infinite suffering, and the 
infinite glory that is to follow, 6 absorb His 
heart ? Avaunt, even ye angels of God ! 
Let not cherubim or seraphim intrude now ! 

1 Luke, xii. 50. 2 John, i. 29. 3 Heb., ii. 14. 

4 Luke, ii. 14; John, xiii. 31 ; xvii. 1, 4, 6 : Eph., in. 10, 21. 
s Luke, ix. 31. 6 i p e t., i. 11. 



BLIND BARTMEUS. 137 

Be astonished ; ye heavens, and be silent, 
earth, while your Maker and Lord, who is 
over all, Grod blessed for ever, 1 treads His 
path of unutterable shame and glory ! He 
must walk that awful way alone ! 

But what voice breaks this holy silence ? 
Who dares draw so near, with clamors so 
loud? A degraded mortal! A miserable, 
blind beggar ! obtruding his petty sorrows on 
the Heart that is gathering to itself the woes 
of a world ! Can he be regarded ? AY ill the 
war-chariot, rushing into battle, turn aside for 
a worm ? Will the swell of the sea, roaring 
on the shore, be checked lest a lamb be 
drowned ? Shall we not join with the multi- 
tude and bid Bartimeus hold his peace? 

Ah, if we do, neither we nor they know 
the heart of our Lord. If we mean thus to 
do Him honor, we will find we have only put 
ourselves to shame. For see, He turns to the 
cry ; He looks upon the beggar. There is no 
lightning in His eye, no terror in His voice. 
His sorrowful face beams with benignity. He 
stands still. His journey is stayed. He calls 

1 Rom., ix. 5. 
12* 



138 BLIND BARTIMEITOi 

the poor man to Him, and gently directs those 
about Him to repeat His welcoming words 
and guide the uncertain steps to Him. 

"He stood still." Let us also stand and 
admire. Here let us learn the grace of our 
Bedeemer, and lay up in our hearts the bles- 
sed teaching. 

Is not the scene beautiful ? Is not the gran- 
deur of such calmness Godlike; the grace- 
fulness of such condescension worthy of a 
birth in heaven? Can it be less than celes- 
tial radiance that streams out in such benevo- 
lence ? 

Then may we learn how unreasonable and 
how unnatural is a favorite clamor of infidels 
against the gospel. They say they cannot be- 
lieve that the Son of God came to this world 
and died for its redemption. This world is 
too small and mean in the great scale of the 
universe, to allow them to think that the cre- 
ator of countless millions of glorious suns and 
systems, could have stooped to love and care 
and suffer and die for the poor creatures of a 
day, who live on this insignificant planet. 

This objection taken from the discoveries of 



BLIND BAETB1EU3. 139 

Astronomy, Dr. Chalmers has swept away, in 
his own magnificent manner, in his Astronom- 
ical Discourses, and I shall not attempt "the 
height of his great argument." Neither does 
it suit my present design to enter on a long 
discussion. But if the naturalness and beauty 
of this scene near Jericho be granted, does it 
not throw light on that tremendous tragedy 
which the gospel declares to have been enacted 
on Calvary ? Granting, — as who will not ? — 
that no violence is done in this scene to any of 
our ideas of the becoming and beautiful, but 
rather that we have here a most attractive 
blending of grace, condescension and heavenly 
charity, may not the Cross itself be granted, 
and its Divine Sufferer ? 

To a narrow vision a structure may seem 
unsightly from its vastness, while in miniature 
the same eye might find the proportions ex- 
quisite. And have we not, in this standing 
still of Jesus, amidst the urgencies of such a 
journey, at the call of a beggar, a miniature 
of the very things by which some are con- 
founded or repelled, in the immense transac- 
tions of the Atonement ? It was worthy of 



140 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

the illustrious Stranger — nay, it was beauti- 
ful, it was sublime — to stay for the relief of 
the unhappy beggar, though His own mind 
was burdened with the weight of the infinite 
sacrifice He was about to offer. Then who 
shall so vilify the redemption of men by the 
Cross, as to pronounce it unworthy of the 
Sovereign of a universe to which our earth is 
but an atom ? Shall an Astronomer be so 
lost in Grod's glory declared by the heavens, 1 
in their measureless and bright immensity, as 
to scorn the thought of His upholding and 
blessing each sun and star ? Then if these 
philosophers gaze on the luminous, illimitable 
fields of creation, until their dazzled minds 
turn back with contempt to the world on 
which they dwell, and find no worth nor 
grandeur in the Cross which redeems it, though 
it saves numbers without number from perdi- 
tion, and glorifies them in the light of God, 
and displays His Attributes before an admir- 
ing universe, let us hold up the confessed 
truthfulness and beauty of this simple inci- 
dent, till, " like a mirror of diamond, it pierce 

1 Psalm xix. 1. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 141 

their misty eye-balls" 1 and lead tliem on to 
the acknowledgment of the truth. 

" Jesus stood still," and when did He ever 
refuse to stay at the call of the distressed sin- 
ner? Nay, if He stayed then, when can He 
refuse? Is He not the same, yesterday, to- 
day and for ever ? 2 Has the love, which 
death and the grave could not quench, per- 
ished in His exaltation ? 3 Did He not bring 
it with Him from the Throne? Or rather, 
did it not bring Him from the Throne? 4 And 
is it not an everlasting love? O needy sin- 
ner, He cannot refuse your cry. " Jesus, Son 
of David, have mercy on me," finds its way 
through the adoring ranks of saints and angels, 
and constrains His gracious heart He cannot 
resist it. He has bound Himself in covenant 
to regard it. 5 Every thing else shall give way, 
if need be, but it shall prevail. Heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but not His word of 
promise to a sinner. 6 

The fires of eternal vengeance stood still 

i Milton. Ref. in Eng. Book I. 2 Heb., xiii. 8. 
3 John, xiii. 1 ; xiv. 1-3. 4 Phil., ii. 6-3. 

* John, xiv. 13, 14. 6 Mat, xxiv. 35. 



142 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

over Sodom till Lot was gone out. 1 The waves 
stood still, and the depths were congealed in the 
heart of the sea till the children of Israel passed 
over. 2 The down-rushing waters of swollen 
Jordan stood still, as the feet of the priests 
touched their brim, and rose up as a wall till 
the chosen tribes had gained their inheritance. 3 
At the cry of Joshua, the sun stood still in the 
midst of the heavens, and the moon in the 
valley of Ajalon, until the Lord's hosts had 
avenged themselves upon their enemies. 4 And 
at the prayers and tears of Hezekiah, Time, 
whose onward urgency is the most inexorable 
of all things, not only stood still, but retreat- 
ed. Ten degrees backward did the shadow go 
on the sun-dial of Ahaz, and fifteen years 
were added to the life of the dying king. 5 

But ah, me ! death is swifter than time, 
and hell deeper than the sea, and God's wrath 
against sin mightier than its waves, and fiercer 
than the fires of Sodom; and can these be 
stayed ? Yes, yes, since Christ received all this 
wrath into His own soul, and there exhausted it, 8 

1 Gen., xix. 23, 24. 2 Ex., xv. 8. 

3 Joshua, iii. 15-1 1. 4 Joshua, x. 12, 13. 

5 2 Kings, xx. 1-11. 6 i Sv mi 6 ; John, xix. 30. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 143 

even these stand still at the cry of the weak- 
est sinner praying in faith to Jesus Christ, or 
in Christ's name. 1 And if a little child even, 
do but trust in Him, he may walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, singing as 
he goes this cheerful song of defiance, Death, 
where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy 
victory V For, since the Messiah was cut off, 
but not for Himself, He hath made an end of 
sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness ; 
the Law is satisfied, and the head of the old 
Serpent bruised. 3 

Then let burdened sinners be of good heart 
and come to Jesus Christ. Let them cry for 
mercy where they will, their faith may be 
sure that Jesus Christ is " standing still" just 
before them, looking kindly on them, and 
ready to give them His blessing. He passed 
that way that Bartimeus might cry to Him, 
and He came on earth that we might all cry to 
Him for mercy. Our crying is the fruit of His 
coming, not its cause. He came of His own 
grace, and we pray because of our need. But 

1 Mark, ix. 23 ; Rom., viii. 31-39. 

2 Ps. xxiii. 4 ; 1 Cor., xv. 55. 3 Dan., ix. 24, 26 ; Gen., iiL 15. 



144 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

we would have sat for ever voiceless and de- 
spairing in our blindness, if His coming had 
not filled our hearts with hope, and our 
mouths with supplications. 

The three evangelists united in saying that 
" Jesus stood still," but now their expressions 
differ. Each one sounds a note which the 
others do not wake, and together they make 
a noble harmony. Do not fail to notice the ad- 
vantage of comparing Scripture with Scrip- 
ture. This is one of the most beautiful in- 
stances I have found. Matthew says, "He 
called ;" Mark, " He commanded him to be 
called ;" and Luke, " He commanded him to 
be brought unto Him." There you have the 
three great steps in a sinner's effectual calling 
illustrated. Bartimeus was called, Sovereign- 
ly, by the voice of Christ ; Instrumentally, by 
the voice of men ; and Efficiently, by the 
helping hands which guided his willing steps 
to Jesus. So we may look upon his call, and 
the gracious call of every sinner who becomes 
a saint, in its divine Origin, its gentle Instru- 
ments, and its effectual Aids. 

I. "He called." Our vocation is of God. He 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 145 

hath called us out of darkness into His mar- 
vellous light. 1 The God of all grace hath 
called us unto His eternal glory by Christ 
Jesus. 2 Our calling is a holy calling, a high 
calling, a heavenly calling. 3 Its source is 
divine grace, its rule the divine purpose, and 
it is the fruit of election. We are chosen in 
eternity and called in time. 4 

" He called." This word of Matthew con- 
tains, as in the seed, the expressions of Mark 
and Luke. All the agencies, by which the 
soul is persuaded and enabled to embrace 
Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gos- 
pel, are hidden in this, His loving call, as the 
leaves and flowers and golden fruit are all 
folded in the germ. Many Providences, many 
Scriptures, many ordinances, many movements- 
of the Spirit may lay hold on a soul to draw 
it to Christ ; but they are all so many threads- 
which Christ holds in His own hand. They 
have all their power from His drawing. 

Then let us use this truth for holy fear.. If 
you resist the appeals of God's ministers,, you 

1 1 Pet., ii. 9. 2 1 Pet., v. 10. 3 2 Tim., L 9 ; PhiL, iii. 4 ; 
Heb., iii. 1. 4 Gal., L 15 ; Rom., viii. 30 ; 2 Tim., i. 9, 10. 

13 



146 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

resist God. If you despise God's Providences, 
you despise Him. If you stifle the alarms of 
conscience, you are silencing the Voice from 
heaven, which may speak to you no more till 
it speak in the thunders of the Judgment. Oh, 
see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh from 
heaven. He that despised Moses' law died 
without mercy. And a sorer punishment — 
sorer than a death, sure, bloody and merciless, 
is in reserve for all who turn away from Him 
that speaketh from heaven. For our God is a 
consuming fire. 1 

Let us also use this truth for holy encour- 
agement. Is it indeed Christ's voice that 
speaks by sacraments and Sabbaths and gos- 
pel ministers ? Then let faith cry, The voice 
of my Beloved! 2 and open the door, and He 
shall come in and sup with us and we with 
Him. 3 We shall feed upon the promises, and 
His fruit shall be sweet to our taste. 4 Our 
hearts shall burn within us, 5 our sorrows be 
comforted, our burdens lightened, our graces 
revived. A bundle of myrrh shall He be to 

1 Heb., x. 28, 29 ; xii. 25, 29. 2 Song, ii. 8. ' 

3 Rev., iii. 20. 4 Song, ii. 3. 6 Luke, xxiy. 32. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 147 

us, and a cluster of camphire from the vine- 
yards of En-gedi. 1 

• " He called." In Jesus Christ we behold 
the best of preachers, — the divine Exemplar 
after whom all should copy. 

While He lived on earth He called to men 
every where, saying, If any man thirst let him 
come unto me and drink. 2 In His zeal to pro- 
claim the glad tidings of salvation through 
faith in His name, any spot became a pulpit, 
any lost sinner a sufficient audience. He 
preached indeed in the Temple frequently, 
and in the synagogues habitually, all over the 
land ; 3 but also in the street, on the mountain, 
and on the strand ;* as He walked by the way 
or sat at meals; 5 when the multitude broke 
in upon His quiet retreat in the country, 
which He had sought with His disciples, for 
a little needful rest, 8 or when the timid in- 
quirer came to Him by night, 7 or the guilty 
woman of Samaria questioned Him as He sat 
in weariness, at noon, on Jacob's well ; 8 whe- 

1 Song, L 14. 2 John, vil 37. 3 Luke, xix. 47 ; iv. 16, 44. 
4 Luke, xiti. 26 ; Mat., v. 1 ; Luke, xiii. 1,2. 
6 Luke, xxiv. 15, 27; Luke, xiv. 6 Mark, vi. 31-34. 
T John, iii. 1, 2. 8 John, iv. 6. 



148 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

ther tlie great ones of Church and State were 
arrayed before Him, or the poor and the dis- 
eased, the publican and the abhorred outcast 
besought His mercy. 1 All moved His pity. 
None were sent empty away. Never was He 
so exhausted that He could not give rest to the 
heavy-laden. Thirsting Himself, He gave to 
others the cup of living water. 2 On his way 
to the Cross, condemned, forsaken, scourged 
and bleeding, He tenderly addressed the 
mourning daughters of Jerusalem, and in the 
very anguish of death, He gave eternal life to 
the penitent robber by whom He had just 
been reviled. 3 

Such a Preacher was Christ : yet it was ex- 
pedient for us that He should go away. The 
purposed ends of His personal ministry on 
earth w r ere accomplished, and it w r as needful 
that He should leave the world and go to the 
Father, there to prepare a place for us, that 
so He might come again, and receive us to 
Himself. 4 But meantime, the preaching of 
the gospel was not to cease. 

1 Mat., xxiii. ; Luke, vii. 36-50 ; xv. a John, iv 10. 

3 Luke, xxiii. 28, 40-43, with Mat, xxvii. 44. 

4 John, xiv. 2, 3 ; xvi. 7, 28. 



BLIND BARTDIEUS. 149 

II. " He commanded him to be called. " 
The Lord gave tlie word ; great was tlie com- 
pany of them that published it. 1 He did not 
leave Himself without a witness, nor His peo- 
ple without a comforter. 2 When He ascended 
up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men. 8 Chiefest Gift, Chiefest 
Witness and Chiefest Comforter was the Holy 
Ghost But besides Him, and under His min- 
istration, He gave some, apostles; and some, 
prophets ; and some, pastors and teachers ; 
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body 
of Christ. 4 

God having reconciled the world unto Him- 
self by Jesus Christ, hath given to us the 
ministry of reconciliation, so that we are am- 
bassadors for Christ, as though God did be- 
seech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's 
stead be ye reconciled to God. 5 The divine 
wisdom is clearly seen in this. The treasure 
is in earthen vessels that the excellency of 
the power may be of God, and not of us. c If 

i Ps. lxviii. 11. 2 Acts, i. 8 ; John, xiv. 16-18. 3 Eph., iv. 8. 
* Eph., iv. 11, 12. s 2 Cor., y. 18-20. 6 2 Cor., iv. 7. 

13* 



150 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

under the music and thunder of angelic voices 
the soul was converted, while the Sabbath air 
was fragrant with heavenly odors and quiver- 
ing with bright wings, our foolish hearts, all 
enravished with the splendor of the vision, 
and thrilling still to the celestial eloquence, 
would ascribe to these flaming ministers the 
glory, saying, By their might, by their power, 
and not by the Spirit of the Lord I 1 But when 
the worm Jacob threshes the mountains,* the 
Spirit is honored, and Christ is honored, and 
men and angels cry together, Not unto us, O 
Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give 
glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's 
sake. 3 

And so it must be. God cannot give His 
glory to another. 4 The saved must all be 
saved by grace, and own it too/ The shout 
of Grace ! Grace ! shall be heard over every 
stone in the Heavenly Temple. 6 

So too, do the preachers of the gospel stand 
before the people as trophies of the grace they 
proclaim. Therefore the preaching comes 

1 Zech., iv. 6. 2 Isa., xli. 14, 15. 3 Ps. cxv. 1. 

4 Is., xlii. 8. 5 2 Tim., I 9. 6 Zech., iv. 1. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 151 

with, the power and tenderness of experience. 
11 1 preached/' says Bunyan, " what I felt, 
what I smartingly did feel, even that under 
which my poor soul did groan and tremble to 
astonishment. Indeed, I have been as one 
sent to them from the dead. I went myself 
in chains, to preach to them in chains ; and 
carried in my own conscience that fire I per- 
suaded them to beware of. I can truly say, 
and that without dissembling, that when I 
have been to preach, I have gone full of guilt 
and terror, even to the pulpit door, and there 
it hath been taken off, and I have been at 
liberty in my mind until I have done my 
work." 1 Oh, who cannot imagine the ten- 
derness, the inflamed earnestness and heart- 
melting pathos with which he must then have 
preached ! 

If we " call" because Christ has " command- 
ed/' then are we servants of Christy servants 
of the Church for His sake, and servants of 
the gospel. Therefore must we preach not 
ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 As 
our calling sinners grows out of His calling 
1 Grace Abounding. 2 2 Cor., iv. 5. 



152 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

them, our great business is to repeat, expound 
and enforce His teachings. His Word is to 
be the substance of our preaching, 1 His Spirit 
our Helper, 2 Himself our Exemplar. 3 Then 
will He stand by us. 4 When we speak from 
His mouth, He will speak by our mouths. 
Through our voice of weakness will sound 
His voice of power. When in heathen lands 
we can but stammer brokenly, in a half- 
learned language, the story of the Cross, He 
will be there, translating to the longing heart 
the glad tidings. When w T e appear for Him, 
He appears in us. 

Let him that heareth, say, Come! 5 Then 
all the called may themselves become callers. 
Some are especially chosen and ordained to 
this work, but every saint may have a share 
in it. soul, once sick unto death, hast thou 
found the great Physician ? Eun quickly to 
thy dying neighbors, and tell them what He 
has done for thee. Ah ! how cansfc thou help 
it ? If thou canst hold thy tongue from pub- 

1 2 Tim., iv. 1, 2. 2 Acts, ii. 4 ; Eph., vi. 19. 

* 1 Cor., xi. 1 : 1 John, ii. 6. 4 Mat., xxviii. 20. 

5 Rev., xxii. 17. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 153 

listing His fame, thou deservest that it should 
stiffen in eternal silence for its base selfishness 
and ingratitude ! 

III. And now what a word of good cheer 
the third evangelist speaks — "He commanded 
him to be brought unto Him!" Admire the 
Lord's grace to the blind man. He will not 
leave him to grope his dark way alone. Some 
shall lead him by the hand. In whatever way, 
he shall have all the aid he needs to come into 
the Saviour's very presence. 

Blessed thought ! that we who are but men, 
may have some share in this dear work of 
guiding blind souls to Jesus. There is no dig- 
nity like it on this side of heaven ; no bliss 
like it to be tasted on earth. It is worth liv- 
ing for, worth dying for, to guide one lost sin- 
ner to his Eedeemer. 

But here I rather choose to think of the 
higher than human aid, which Christ sends 
with His word to the souls of His chosen. 
The energy of Almighty power accompanies 
the preaching of the truth. 1 The Spirit and 
the Bride say, Come ! 2 There is your hope 

1 Ephuj i. 1 (-20. 2 R ev>) xxii. i7. 



154: BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

and our consolation. While we call from 
our pulpits, Christ calls from heaven, and the 
Spirit calls in your very hearts. At the word 
of Christ, we tell you of your blindness ; only 
the Spirit can convince you of your blindness. 1 
We tell you of Christ; only the Spirit can 
take of the things of Christ, and show them to 
you. 2 He alone can shine into your hearts to 
give the light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Christ. 3 We can pro- 
phesy to the dry bones in the Valley of Vis- 
ion ; only He can clothe them with flesh and 
fill them with life, till they shall rise and go 
forth a great army. 4 When bidden, we can 
stretch out the rod over the sea ; only He can 
make it a rod of might, and send the strong 
wind which shall change the sea to dry land. 6 
Bat all these this mighty Spirit -can do, and 
will do, at the will of Christ, for the word of 
Christ. 

Therefore we are of good courage. We are 
weak, but our Helper is strong. We take the 
word of Jesus, and while it seems but a word 

1 John, xvi. 8, margin. 2 John, xvi. 15. 3 2 Cor., iv. 6. 
4 Ezek., xxxvii. 1-10. 6 Ex., xiv. 16, 21. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 155 

from human lips, the Spirit makes it the 
power of God for salvation. 1 It suddenly be- 
comes a two-edged sword, quick and powers 
fill, in the hands of Omnipotence. It pierces 
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, 
and of the joints and marrow — almighty to ac- 
complish the whole sovereign will of Christ. 2 
Sinner, I charge you, remember . the dread- 
ful sanction Christ puts on the preaching of 
His ambassadors in those words : He that de- 
spiseth you, despiseth Me, and he that despi- 
seth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me. 3 It is 
Heavenly Yfisdom that now cries, Turn you 
at my reproof; behold I will pour out my 
Spirit unto you. I will make known my 
words unto you. 4 Beware, then, lest one day 
you hear that awful voice, Because I have 
called, and ye have refused ; I have stretched 
out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye 
have set at nought all my counsel, and would 
none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your 
calamity ; I will mock when your fear com- 
eth; when your fear cometh as desolation, 

1 Rom., i., 16. 2 Heb., iv. 12 ; Is., lv. 11. 

3 Luke, x. 16 4 Prov.,i. 23. 



156 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

and your destruction as a whirlwind; when 
distress and anguish cometh upon you ! Then 
shall they call upon me, but I will not an- 
swer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall 
not find me! 1 

Christ, I have preached the preaching 
Thou hast bidden me. Honor Thine own 
word, and send thine effectual aids! 

O Spirit of Jesus, glorify the truth in Jesus, 
Display Thine Almighty power, and lead these 
poor sinners to Jesus Christ ! 

1 Prov., i. 24-28. 



VI. 



"And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good 
comfort ;' rise ; He calleth thee. And he, casting away his 
garment, rose and came to Jesus." 

>1a)HAT a lively picture of gospel 
preaching! The seeing hasten to 
the sightless and bid them come to 
^Qr^ Jesus Christ. Men whose eyes have 
& seen the Lord, and whose ears have 
heard His gracious words, go at His command, 
to souls sitting in the region and shadow of 
death, 1 and there proclaim aloud these joyful 
tidings. 

The analogy would be perfect, if those who 
were sent to Bartimeus had themselves been 
blind, until their eyes had been opened by 
Christ. And who can say that it was not so 
with some of them? Christ had healed many 
blind men, and it is far from improbable that 
some of them followed Him ever after, wait- 

1 Mat, iv. 16. 
14 



158 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

ing to be sent on these joyful errands of 
grace. 

Then with what generous indignation must 
they have heard the cruel rebukes of the mul- 
titude ! gospel preachers, both lay and 
clerical — all who in public or in private, in 
the pulpit or by the way-side, have any thing 
to tell to others of Christ's gracious dealings 
with your souls, remember the wormwood 
and the gall 1 of your lost estate, and let a 
righteous anger burn against the world, the 
flesh and the devil, against priest and phari- 
see, and every ungodly Church and professor, 
who would silence the cries of convicted souls. 
Think of the w r oes of perishing sinners, and 
let an honest zeal for their deliverance from 
ruin kindle your heart and tongue against all 
the agencies of hell, however disguised, bap- 
tized or consecrated, who would drive even 
the meanest sinners — publicans and harlots, 
from Jesus Christ. Feel as men once rescued 
from a wreck would feel, if they saw, upon a 
stormy sea, " swimmers in their agony" weakly 
grasping the icy shore, only to be inhumanly 
thrust back into the wintry waves. 

1 Lam., iii. 19. 



BLIND BARTBIEUS. 159 

Then too, with what alarmed sympathy 
would these men, once blind, now seeing, have 
regarded Bartimeus, if he had wavered in his 
earnestness after Christ! What would the}' not 
have done to have roused him again to his im- 
portunity? gospel preachers, be it so with 
you. Let your hearts melt with concern for 
timid souls turning away from Christ through 
discouragement. Oh, that we could all say 
with Paul, My little children, of whom I tra- 
vail in birth again, till Christ be formed in 
you. 1 Oh that all ministers and all Chris- 
tians felt such anguish of love for halting 
souls. 

And with what alacrity would these messen- 
gers of Christ have hastened to bear His words 
of welcome to the blind man ! Joy beyond 
expression would have inspired them. I have 
heard of a caravan which had lost its way 
in the desert. For days they could find no 
water. The suffering was sore, and many 
were perishing. Men were out in all direc- 
tions searching for the water that was to be, 
indeed, water of life. At last, faint and ready 

1 Gal., iv. 19. 



160 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

to die, one man lighted on a spring. Cool 
and clear the stream gushed from the rock. 
Almost frantic with thirst, he rushed forward 
and drank, drank. Oh how deep was the 
bliss of that draught ! Is it strange that for 
one moment he thought only of himself? But 
suddenly the perishing multitude came before 
his mind, and he leaped up, and ran shouting, 
" Water ! water! Enough for all! Come 
and drink !" And so from rank to rank of 
that scattered host he sped, until he had told 
them all, and was himself thirsty again. But 
when he saw the eager crowds rushing to 
the fountain, when he beheld the refreshment 
and gladness of all hearts and faces, and then 
stooped once more himself to drink the liberal 
stream, was not his second draught full of 
deeper bliss than even the first ? Had he ever 
tasted such water as that? blessed souls 
who have drank of the river of life, lift up 
your voice upon the mountains, and let your 
feet be swift upon the plains, publishing the 
good tidings of salvation. 1 

This brings to view the joyfulness of the 

1 Isa., lii. 1. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 161 

gospel. It is not a message of gloom, a thing 
to be whispered in darkness as a dreadful 
secret. "We dishonor the gospel when we 
would recommend it by a melancholy visage. 
We have not entered into its spirit, if, when 
we would press its claims upon a friend, we go 
stealthily aside, and hang our heads, and use 
lugubrious speech, and seem like doleful cul- 
prits at the confessional, instead of free citi- 
zens of the Kingdom, rejoicing in our coming 
inheritance of inconceivable glory. When 
the hypocrites in Isaiah's time would keep a 
fast, they bowed their heads as a bulrush, and 
spread sackcloth and ashes under them. 1 And 
in Christ's day, they were of a sad counten- 
ance, and disfigured their faces; but Christ 
rebuked this, and required His disciples rather 
to wash their faces, and anoint their heads, 
that even in keeping a fast, they might lack 
none of the usual tokens of cheerfulness. 2 

Oh, the gospel is joyful ! It found the race 
cowering in despair by the forbidden tree, 
under the threatened vengeance of Jehovah ; 
and it will not leave them, till the last of the 

1 Isa., lviii. 5. 2 Mat., vl 16, It. 

14* 



162 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

chosen seed are exulting in eternal song be- 
fore their Father's Throne. "When it first vis- 
ited our world, the earth was groaning and 
travailing in the bondage of corruption. But 
the Eedeemer shall one day break these chains, 
and introduce the burdened creation into the 
glorious liberty of the children of God. It is 
already waiting for their manifestation, and 
leaning forward in eager hope of its own de- 
liverance. 1 

The gospel gloomy ! It is an anthem from 
the harps of heaven, the music of the Eiver 
of Life washing its shores on high, and pour- 
ing in cascades upon the earth. Not so cheer- 
ful was the song of the morning stars, nor the 
shout of the sons of God so joyful. 2 GusKing 
from the fountains of eternal harmony, it was 
first heard on earth in a low tone of solemn 
gladness, uttered in Eden, by the Lord God 
Himself. 3 This gave the key-note of the gos- 
pel song. Patriarchs caught it up, and taught 
it to the generations following. It breathed 
from the harp of Psalmists, and rang like a 
clarion from tower and mountain-top, as pro- 

1 Rom., viii. 19-23. 2 Job, xxxviii. 1. 3 Gen., iii. 15. 



BLDTC) BARTIMEUS. 163 

phets proclaimed the year of jubilee. Fresh 
notes from heaven have enriched the har- 
mony, as the Lord of Hosts and His angels 
have revealed new promises, and called on the 
suffering children of Zion to be joyful in their 
King. ' From bondage and exile, from dens 
and caves, from bloody fields and fiery stakes 
and peaceful death-beds have they answered, 
in tones which have cheered the disconsolate, 
and made oppressors shake upon their thrones ; 
while sun and moon and all the stars of light, 
stormy wind fulfilling His word, the roaring 
sea and the fulness thereof, mountains and 
hills, fruitful fields and all the trees of the 
wood have rejoiced before the Lord, and the 
coming of His Anointed, for the redemption 
of His people, and the glory of His holy 
Name. 2 

The gospel gloomy ! If the best right, and 
the only right to be glad on earth, with the 
assured prospect of eternal blessedness in 
heaven; if songs in the night 3 and stars of 
promise; if the light of morning with its 

1 Ps. cxlix. 2. 2 Ps. xcviii 11-13 ; cxlviii. 3, 8. 

8 Job, xxxv. 10. 



164 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

fragrant breath and singing birds ; if health 
for the sick, return for the banished, pardon 
for the doomed, and life for the dying ; if love, 
joy, peace, hope ; if harp and crown and wav- 
ing palm, and the everlasting vision of the 
Kedeemer's glory be gloomy, then is the gos- 
pel gloomy ! 

Such is the spirit of the tidings these mes- 
sengers bring to Bartimeus, in this, his second 
gospel sermon. The first told him simply that 
Jesus was passing by. Now he hears these 
heart-reviving words, "Be of good comfort; 
rise; He calleth thee." 

" Be of good comfort." On thy long night, 
without moon or star, or even a dim candle 
in thy dwelling, the Day-star is dawning. 1 
Thine eyes have never been used but for weep- 
ing ; they seemed only made for tears. But 
now they shall serve thee for seeing. Thou 
shalt look upon earth and sky and all dear 
faces and even Christ thy Saviour. Eejoice, 
too, for thy poverty and beggary are ended. 
Thou shalt work with thy hands, and eat the 
bread of thine own honest toil. Be of good 

^uke, i 18] Rev., xxii. 16. 



BLIND BABTIMEUS. 165 

heart. With Jesus for thy physician, thou 
needst not fear. He never casts any away, 
and He never fails. At His touch, how have 
we seen the blind gaze, the dumb sing, the 
lame cast away their crutches, and leap for 
joy, and even the dead awake and live I 1 

Sinners, poor, wretched and blind, but cry- 
ing for the Saviour, be not disconsolate. " Be 
of good comfort." After your night of weep- 
ing, your morning of joy has come. 2 On your 
hearts the Day-star is rising. 3 Come to Jesus, 
and roam and grope and beg no more. Do 
not fear to come. Oh He is gracious ! Oh 
He is mighty ! His blood cleanseth from all 
sin. 4 He is able to save to the uttermost. 6 
This is the work in which His soul delighteth. 
iSTone can measure His love. It is stronger 
than death, even the death of the Cross. And 
the satisfaction He desires for all the travail 
of His soul, is just to pardon and cleanse 
guilty sinners. 7 "Be of good comfort" then, 
and come to Jesus Christ. 

" Eise !" say the preachers to Bartimeus, and 

i Mat, xi. 5. 2 Ps. xxx. 5. 3 2 Pet, i. 19. 4 John, i. 7. 
5 Heb., vii. 25. 6 Epli., iii. 19. 7 Is., liii. 10, 11. 



166 BLIND BAKTIHEUS. 

so we cry. There is salvation for the sinner, 
none for the sluggard. There is pardon for 
all sin, except not coming to Jesus. 1 "Whether 
from hatred, doubt, or indifference, it is the 
same, if you will not rise and come, you per- 
ish. Laziness is a slow devil. He looks easy, 
and sometimes amiable. But none are more 
obstinate, and few have carried more to hell 
than he. Not to receive Christ is to reject 
Him. Not to love Him is to hate Him and 
be Anathema. 2 How often would I have gath- 
ered you, .says Christ, as He weeps over the 
doom of Jerusalem, but ye would not ! 3 Ah, 
that is the secret of damnation — Ye would not 
come unto me that ye might have life. Eise, 
then, ye unpardoned. Away with your fears 
and doubts. They are unreasonable and 
wicked. Break off your indifference. It is 
a noiseless chain, indeed, but be not deceived ; 
the chain that does not clank is the tightest. 
Let me take the trumpet of the Holy Ghost, 
and may He fill it with a sound that shall 
pierce your heart; — Awake thou that sleepest 

1 John, vi. 31, with v. 40. 2 1 Cor., xvi. 22. 

3 Mat., xxiii. 31. 



BLIXD BARTLMEUS. 167 

and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give 
thee light! 1 

"He calleth thee." What more canst thou 
want, Bartimeus? If He calls thee, He will 
cure thee. If He calls, who can forbid ? His 
call would clear a way for thee through all 
this multitude, if they should oppose. All the 
devils in hell could not keep thee back, pc>or, 
sightless, helpless man, if thy Saviour calls 
thee. 

Thy call is thy warrant. The call of Christ 
is warrant enough for any sinner. He may 
use it against the Law and Satan and his own 
evil conscience. For example, Satan comes 
to him and says, 

" What, wretch ! art thou going to Christ ?" 

" Aye, that I am, with all my heart." 

" But will He receive thee ?" 

" Aye, that He will, with all His heart." 

a Truly, thou art a brave talker ! Who 
taught thee this lofty speech ?' ? 

" Nay, my speech is lowly, and I learned 
it of my Lord." 

"But where is thy warrant? None can go 
to Christ without a warrant." 
1 Eph., v. u. 



168 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

" He calleth me — be thai my warrant !" 

"But where is thy fitness?" says Satan, 
shifting his ground. 

"Be my warrant my fitness — He calleth 
me," answers the sinner keeping his ground, 
his only ground. 

" But listen, soul! Thou art going before a 
King. He cannot look upon iniquity," 1 (for 
you see Satan can quote Scripture,) "and 
thou art but a mass of iniquity ;" (here the 
devil affects a great horror of it, to fill the 
sinner with fear.) " The heavens are not clean 
in His sight ; a how then shall thy filthiness 
appear before Him ? Look at thy rags, if thy 
blind eyes will let thee, and say, what a dress 
is this to* take into His presence !" 

"It is all true," says the contrite sinner, 
" still I will go, for He calleth me. I will bind 
this call about me and it shall be my dress., 
till He give me another. I will hold up this 
call, written with His own hand, and signed 
with His own name, and sealed with His own 
blood, and it shall be my defence and plea. 
Miserable and unworthy as I am, and deserv- 

i Hab. ? i. 13. 2 Job, xv. 15. 



BLEST) BARTIMEUS. 169 

ing, I know, to die, with this I have boldness 
and access with confidence, 1 saying only, like 
little Samuel, Here am I, for Thou didst call 
me !" 2 

Bartimeus needed no more. "Casting away 
his garment, he rose and came to Jesus." It 
could not be otherwise. True earnestness does 
not wait. Conscious wretchedness in the pre- 
sence of a trusted Saviour cannot delay. Only 
half-convictions can procrastinate. Sinners 
who hang back and yet look forward, longing 
and tarrying, hearing a thousand exhortations 
but waiting for one more, have either shallow 
views of sin or low views of Christ. I pray 
you take heed of that ; there is your trou- 
ble, — shallow views of sin or low views of 
Christ. Either you do not see your need of 
such a Saviour, or you do not see Him to be 
the Saviour you need. If you knew what a 
sinner you are, and what a Saviour He is, you 
would go to Him at once and be saved. 

" A full conviction of sin," says John Owen, 3 
" is a great and shaking surprisal unto a guilty 
soul." And without such surprisals men will 

1 Eph., iii. 12. 2 1 Sam., iii. 6. 3 On Heb. vi. 18. 

15* 



170 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

die in their carnal security. Therefore though 
the gospel is indeed a message of gladness, its 
preachers must often preach heavy and bitter 
things. The Old Testament ends with the 
word " Curse," while the New begins with 
this announcement, " The book of the genera- 
tion of Jesus Christ." But until this sound oi. 
an avenging Law has rung dreadfully in the 
sinner's ears, little will he care for the glad 
tidings of the gospel. 

Would to God our message might ever 
sound in music and not in thunder — that we 
might stand evermore on the green top of sun- 
lit Grerizim, and never again on the stormy 
height of gloomy Ebal 1 — that our doctrine 
might drop as the rain, and our speech distil 
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender 
herb, and as the showers upon the grass! 2 
But what care they for refuge who have not 
heard of wrath ? for Calvary, who have never 
trembled under the blaze and roar of Sinai ? 
for pardon, who are not convinced of sin ? for 
the treasures hid in Christ, who say, I am rich 
and increased with goods, and have need of 
1 Deut., xi. 29. 2 Deut., xxxiL 2. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 171 

nothing ; and know not, alas ! that they are 
wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
and naked S 1 

If our hearers were all like Bartimeus, our 
message might always begin, " Be of good 
comfort."' If men felt their burdens, we would 
gently say, Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest 2 
If they were conscious of their thirst, how 
joyfully would we cry, Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters ! s If they 
were already cut to the heart with sharp con- 
victions, and were crying to us, Sirs, what 
must we do to be saved ? most gladly would 
we answer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and ye shall be saved. 4 

The gospel is joyful, though it has one note 
of terror — He that believeth not shall be 
damned. 5 It announces that there is no need oi 
damnation. We may all be saved, if we will 
but believe. It does not create our condem- 
nation, 6 we are condemned already. 7 It finds 
us in chains and tells us how we may escape. 

1 Rev., iii. 17. 2 Mat, xi. 28. 3 Isa., Iv. 1. 

4 Acts. xvi. 29-31. 5 Mark, xvi. 16. c John, iii. 11 

7 John, iiL 18. 



L72 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Am I not still the bearer of glad tidings, if 
I burst into the cell of the doomed man and 
cry, Here is your pardon ! Come out at once, 
and you shall live ! even if, as I see him con- 
tentedly hugging his chain, or sinking back 
into his stupid sleep, I seize him with rough 
kindness, and cry out to him with an energy 
of love that seems like fierceness, Eise and 
flee, or you perish ! All who are found within 
these walls, when the bell of doom begins to 
toll, must die ! 

The ancient heathen had this saying; " The 
feet of the avenging deities are shod with 
wool." Shod with wool ! Yes, they crept with 
noiseless steps, that the touch that aroused, 
might be the blow that destroyed. It is not 
so with our merciful God. He sounds an 
alarm that we may seek a refuge. His thun- 
der rolls along the distant horizon, that we 
may take in sail and be ready for the storm, 
the storm which would have burst upon us no 
less surely, without this gracious warning. 

As Bartimeus rose to hasten to Jesus, he 
"cast away his garment," his loose upper 
robe. He would suffer no hindrance. He 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 173 

may have thrown it aside unconsciously, but 
it was the action of nature — nature in earnest 
for some great end. 

Let us take the lesson. If we would win 
Christ, we must lay aside every weight, and 
the sin which so easily besets us 1 — the sin we 
have daily wrapped about us like our gar- 
ment. We must forget those things which 
are behind, and reach forth unto those things 
which are before. 2 Hearken, O daughter, and 
consider, and incline thine ear; forget also 
thine own people and thy father's house. So 
shall the King greatly desire thy beauty ; for 
He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. 3 

Cain sacrificed unto the Lord, but he could 
not cast off his envy, and it soon constrained 
him to murder. 4 Balaam sighed for the death 
of the righteous ; but when he saw the wages 
of unrighteousness, they seemed so goodly a 
garment, that he drew it around him, and 
died a very different death indeed — slain by 
the avenging sword of Israel, and mingling 
his blood with the blood of those he had se^ 

1 Heb., xii. 1. 2 Phil., iii. 13. 3 Ps. xlv. 10, 11. 

4 Gen., iv. 3, 5, 8. 

15* 



174 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

duced into licentiousness and idolatry. 1 Felix 
trembled as Paul preached ; but procrastina- 
tion was so wrapped about him that he could 
not cast it off, and so he never came to Christ. 2 
When Herod heard John the Baptist, he did 
many things, and heard him gladly ; yet when 
the stern prophet put forth his hand to tear 
away the robe of lust, whose clinging poison 
was eating into his soul, he bound him in 
prison and murdered him, and died, at length, 
in exile and shame. 3 The young Euler came 
even running to Christ, such was his eager- 
ness for salvation ; but a searching word about 
his possessions suddenly stopped him. He 
hesitated, he yearned for the blessing of eter- 
nal life. He was so guileless, so full of virtue, 
so ingenuous, so warm in his aspirations for 
. immortal purity and blessedness. He looked 
upon Jesus with longing ; Jesus looked upon 
him with love. Is it too much to believe that 
they both wept? But ah! that cloth of gold 
in which he had arrayed himself, and which 
he wore in his high station with such grace 

'- Num., xxiii. 10; 2 Pet, ii. 15; Num., xxxi. 8, 16. 
2 Acts, xxiv. 25. 3 Mark, vi. 17, 20, 21. 



BLIXD BARTIMEUS. 175 

and pride — that jewelled robe seemed too pre- 
cious to rend and scatter to the poor ; so he 
drew it slowly around him, and went sorrow- 
fully away, and it became, I fear, his poor 
soul's winding-sheet! 1 Ananias and Sapphira 
professed the faith of Christ, joined the Church, 
and even made a great sacrifice of their pos- 
sessions for it 5 but unable to cast off the gar- 
ment of lying ostentation, God touched it with 
His wrath, and consumed them. 2 Judas was 
numbered with the twelve apostles, and ob- 
tained part of their ministry ; but he still wore 
the secret robe of avarice, and it grew to his 
very flesh, and ate into his heart as a canker, 
and when his heart was gone, he betrayed his 
Master, and hurried to perdition, 5 

How do these cases search and condemn 
many professors of religion! Cain shows 
that professed worshippers of Grod may perish ; 
Balaam and Felix, that holy aspirations and 
fearful convictions may yet end in destruc- 
tion; Herod, that those who hear joyfully the 

i Mark, x. 1*7-22. 2 Acts, v. 1-11. 

3 Acts, L 17; John, xii. 6; Mat, xxvi. 14-16, 47-49; 
xxvii. 5. 



176 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

most faithful preaching and go far in their 
obedience, may yet be lost. The young man 
whom Jesus loved proves the utter insuffi- 
ciency of human virtue without the grace of 
God. Ah, more ; how much it is to be feared 
that that same word about the possessions 
spoken to many in this day, who are " run- 
ning" most complacently in their profession, 
would give them a check from which they 
would never recover. And as to the sin of 
Ananias and Sapphira, it would seem that 
many modern Church members think that 
the essence of the sin was in selling the land 
at all, and laying any part of the price at the 
Apostles' feet! Oh, how should they be 
afraid, who are content that souls now in hell 
should have surpassed all their proofs of love 
to Christ and His poor ! Lastly, the perdition 
of the traitor rings an alarm-bell in the ears, 
not only of ail professors, but all ministers, 
crying out that they, who have preached the 
gospel to others, may themselves be cast 
away. 1 

There is yet one garment, which more than 

1 1 Cor., ix. 21. . 



BLLSD BARTIMEUS. 177 

all others men hug about them, and that is 
Self-righteousness. It is a miserable and filthy 
affair, a thing of patch-work and rags. 1 But 
the blind sinner thinks it fair and comely. 
He draws it about him in pride, and his soul 
has comfort. 

Some men toil all their lives to make it 
large and clean and beautiful, and to set it 
richly with gems of virtue and good works. 
Paul was a diligent worker at this, and for a 
while he thought himself very successful, and 
used to survey himself in the glass of the law 
with great complacency. He counts over to 
us seven fair colors that were woven into it, 
making it, in his estimation, like a rainbow for 
beauty ; — If any other man thinketh he hath 
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more ; 
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of 
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew 
of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Phari- 
see ; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church ; 
touching the righteousness which is in the 
law, blameless ! 2 On all these he ]ooked with 
great satisfaction, little knowing how blind he 
1 Is., lxiv. 6. 2 Phil., iii 4-6. 



178 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

was, nor what a poor, unsightly wretch in the 
eyes of God. But when the great light from 
heaven shone upon him, and God opened his 
eyes/ he saw that he was vile, and had no 
righteousness at all. 2 He poured nothing but 
contempt on the glory of his old pride. 3 As 
he grew older he seemed to delight to stain it 
more and more. 4 At last, many years after, 
he wrote a letter to his son Timothy, and con- 
fessed that all that time he was a blasphemer, 
and a persecutor and injurious, and the chief 
of sinners. 5 

This garment must always be renounced 
when a sinner would come to Jesus Christ, 
But it is very hard to do. The old ploughman 
was right when he told Hervey that it was 
harder to get rid of righteous self than of sin- 
ful self. Hervey thought it a very ridiculous, 
speech at the time, for he knew little of grace 
then ; but afterwards he learned in the school 
of Christ that it was so indeed. 

Some remainders, of it, however, — some 
shreds and patches, hang about all saints on 

1 Acts, ix. 1-18. 2 Phil., iii. 3. 3 Phil., iii. 1-9. 

4 1 Cor., xv. 9, with Eph., iii. 8, and 1 Tim., i. 15. 
5 1 Tim., i. 13, 15, 16. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 170 

earth. And what is very marvellous, even 
after they have seen and abhorred its filth i- 
ness, if God would suffer, they would all 
fall to, and weave these rags together again, 
and think them comely, and wear them in 
pride ! 

Job, who was one of the best of men, was 
once found doing too much of this, (as you 
may see in the twenty-ninth and thirty-first 
chapters,) when God suddenly gave him a 
sight of himself in the mirror of infinite ma- 
jesty and sovereignty, 1 and the sight so over- 
whelmed him that he exclaimed, I am vile. 2 
Once more God flashed the light of that terri- 
ble mirror upon him, 3 for He meant to make 
thorough work, and Job cried out, I have 
heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear ; but 
now mine eye seeth Thee ; wherefore I abhor 
myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 4 

Oh that God may give us all grace to cast 
this wretched garment away, tearing it and 
stamping it in the dust, that we may win 

* Job, chapters xxxviii., xxxix. and xL 1,2. 

2 Job, xL 3. 3 Job, xL 6-24, and chapter xll 

4 Job, xlil 5, 6. 



180 BLIND BARTIMEUS. ' 

Christ, and be found in Him, not having our 
own righteousness, which is of the law, but 
that which is through, the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness which is of God by faith I 1 

1 Phil., iii. 8, 9. 




VII. 

"And Jesus answered and said unto him. What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto 
Him, Lord that I might receive my sight I" 

lAETIMEUS is at length at the feet of 
Jesus. He cannot see Him yet, but 
^ he feels it good to be there — there in 
^J^ the -dust, there in darkness. 

Q> And who ever found it otherwise ? 

Oh, what sorrows have been brought to the 
Saviour's feet — shame, disappointment, be- 
reavement, sickness of heart and flesh, the 
stings of remorse, the inward burning of di- 
vine wrath, the pains of utter despair! But 
who that ever came in wretchedness did not 
here find blessedness ? 

I do not mean now the blessedness of the 
final and great relief, when heavenly light has 
streamed through all the broken heart and 
healed it ; but the blessedness, simply, of 
having come to Jesus, the blessedness of be- 
ing consciously near Him. 

16 



182 BLIND BARTTMEUS. 

All coming to Christ is good. While only 
the Law works, the sinner only suffers. The 
cliffs of Sinai are falling. Heavy bolts from 
the thick darkness where God is, break the 
heart. 1 But the Gospel gives peace. We joy 
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by 
whom we have now received the atonement. 2 
The sun brightens and warms all who look 
upon it, though they come from cold, foul 
caverns. And Christ is a Sun. He gives 
grace and glory to the most miserable of sin- 
, ners and His bitterest enemies, if they look to 
Him in faith. 3 If the bruised and aching 
heart be brought within the shining of the 
Cross, its beams will glide into it, and fill it 
with secret refreshments. There is comfort in 
resolving to flee to Christ, comfort in fleeing, 
comfort in falling at His feet. I trow Barti- 
meus was never so truly happy before, and 
yet he is still a beggar, lying in unrelieved 
blindness in the dust at the feet of Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

The feet of Jesus ! There the sinner finds 

1 Rom., vii 7-13. 2 R m., v. 11. 

8 Ps. lxxxiv. 11, with Mai., iv. 2. 



BLIND BARTTMEUS. 183 

s 11 that the needs of his own soul, all that the 
demands of the Law, all that the Perfections 
of God require. There he sees the Antetype of 
all the types, the Substance of all the shadows, 
the Fulfilment of all the promises. There his 
guilt is pardoned, his foulness cleansed, his 
person accepted. For there is at once the 
Priest and the Sacrifice, the blood of sprink- 
ling and the way into the Holiest of all. 1 
There is the true Mercy-seat and the She- 
kinah, — the visible glory of the Divine pre- 
sence between 'the cherubim. 2 There God is 
manifest in the flesh* 

At the feet of Jesus none need be afraid. 
This beggar drew u near." In Him we have 
boldness and access with confidence through 
the faith of Him. 4 It is impossible to press 
too near to Christ. In the Song the Spouse is 
seen coming up from the wilderness leaning 
upon her Beloved. 5 Like John at the Supper 
we may rest upon His very breast. 6 The good 
Shepherd loves to see His sheep lying neai 

1 Heb., ix. 11-14; x. 19-22. 2 Ex., xxv. 22. 

3 1 Tim., iii. 16. 4 Eph., Si 12. 

6 Song, viii. 5. 6 John, xiii. 23. 



184 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

His feet, and when the lambs are weary He 
carries them in His bosom. 1 

In the days of His flesh His invitation was 
evermore, Come unto me ! 2 The exiled leper 
heard, and burst through all to come into His 
presence and fall at His feet. 3 The multitudes 
heard, and again and again did they "throng" 
Him, " press" upon Him. 4 

But so far was He from being offended, that, 
though they were poor and covered with dis- 
ease, loathsome to sight and touchy He healed 
them all. 5 Publicans and sinners heard^ and 
even while He and His disciples sat at 
meat, they came and sat with them. 6 So 
freely did He receive them and mingle with 
them, that He was sneeringly called, The 
Friend of publicans and sinners. 7 They meant 
it for shame, but He took it for glory. The 
ruined outcast heard — ah ! who can ever forget 
that tender scene of grace, in which He so 
vindicates and blesses the polluted woman, 
who, in the bitterness of her contrition, came 
unbidden to the feast of the haughty Pharisee, 

« Is., xl. 11. 2 Mat, xi. 28 ; Mark, x. 14 : John, vu. 37. 

3 Luke, v. 12. 4 Luke, viii. 19, 45. 

6 Mat., xii. 19. * Mat, ix. 10, 11. 7 Mat, xi. 19. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 185 

and regardless of surprise and contempt, began 
to wash His feet with her tears, and did wipe 
them with the hairs of her head, and kissed 
His feet, and anointed them with the ointment 
of her broken alabaster box I 1 And who can 
cease to remember, with grateful amazement, 
those words by which the vilest may draw 
near to His heart ; Whosoever shall do the 
will of God, the same is my brother, and my 
sister and mother. 2 

But do you say, Christ is no longer on 
earth, and we cannot go to Him thus ? 

He has indeed passed into the heavens, and 
they have received Him until the times of the 
restitution of all things. 3 But His tender 
heart went with Him. He hath an unchange- 
able Priesthood, and He is the same yesterday, 
to-day and for ever, still a merciful and faith- 
ful High-Priest ; still touched with feeling for 
our infirmities. 4 "When of old the children of 
Israel watched the high-priest on the Day of 
Atonement, did their comfort die when he 
disappeared behind the veil ? Did they not 

1 Luke, vii. 36-50. 2 Mark, iii. 35. 3 Acts, iii. 21. 

4 Heb., vii. 24 ; xiii. 8 ; ii. It; iv. 15. 

16* 



186 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

remember with joy that he was there com- 
pleting his great work of propitiation for 
their sins? that their names were graven on 
the breast-plate which he wore on his heart ? 
and that while he stood before the blood- 
sprinkled mercy-seat, in the presence of that 
awful glory, covered but not stricken by it, 
he stood as the Bepresentative of a freely jus- 
tified people? 1 Even so Christ has entered 
into heaven itself, the true Holy of holies, now 
to appear in the presence of God for us. 2 
Wherefore He is able to save them to the 
uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing 
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. 3 
Years after He had taken His seat on His 
Throne, when He was closing the Canon of 
Scrip ture ; when all seemed finished and ready 
for the final seal of God's dreadful malediction 
against him who should add to the words of 
the Holy Ghost, or take from them, 4 He 
stretched forth His hand and held back the 
curse until one more invitation, full, blessed, 
universal, poured from His heart. The Spirit 

1 Lev., xvi. 2 Heb., ix. 24. 3 Heb., vii. 25. 

4 Rev., xxii. 18, 19. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 187 

and the Bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
come. And whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely. 1 

" And when he was come near, Jesus an- 
swered. 77 Bartimeus now, for the first time, 
receives the word immediately from the lips 
of his Lord. He is at the "Well-head of life, 
and as he stoops to drink, the stream gushes 
toward him. 

It is always so. If we would commune 
with Christ ; we must draw near to Him. If 
we would hear His voice, we must fall down 
before Him. It is only there that heaven and 
earth may meet in peace. Christ is the true 
Tabernacle of the Congregation, 2 or, as that 
Old Testament expression may be more lit- 
erally and instructively rendered, The Taber- 
nacle of Meeting, — the divinely appointed 
Meeting- place ; first and chiefly where God 
would meet His people, and they should meet 
Him, and so meet one another. Coming from 
all the vast circumference of Israel, there they 
met and found themselves one, at that holy 
1 Eev., xxii. 1Y. 2 Ex., xxxiii. 7. 



188 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

centre, bright with the visible glory of the 
Godhead and the clear types of atoning 
grace. 

Calvary is a little hill to the eye, but it is 
the only spot on earth that touches heaven. 
The Cross is foolishness to human reason, and 
a stumbling-block to human righteousness j 1 
but there only do Mercy and Truth meet to- 
gether, and Eighteousness and Peace kiss each 
other. 2 Jesus Christ was a man of low con- 
dition, and died a death of shame on an ac- 
cursed tree; but there is salvation in no 
other. 3 There is no Mercy-seat in the uni- 
verse but at His feet. 

But, lying there, we shall not only be ac- 
cepted, but shall not lack some gracious word 
from His lips. There the broken heart shall 
hear its best music — a still small voice, 4 it 
may be, but God will be in the voice, and the 
contrite spirit shall be revived. 5 

. " What wilt thou that I should do unto 
thee ?" A goodly word, indeed ! What would 
not a soul, struggling in the depths and en- 

i 1 Cor., i. 23. 2 p s . lxxxv. 10. 3 Acts, iv. 11, 12. 

4 1 Kings, xix. 12. 5 Is.. IviL 15. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 189 

tanglements of sin, give once to hear it from 
his Lord ? Let us admire, 

I. The fulness of the grace. The tender 
love of Christ to lost souls is a great deep, 
without bottom and without shore. The wing 
of no angel can bear him so high that he can 
look over all its extent. The guilt of no sin- 
ner has been able to sound all its depth. The 
countless multitudes, who have been washed 
in its waters, have not diminished its abund- 
ance nor impaired its virtue. 

King Ahasuerus said unto Queen Esther 
at the banquet of wine, "What is thy petition ? 
and it shall be granted thee ; and what is thy 
request? even to the half of my kingdom shall 
it be performed. 1 And so the monarchs of the 
East delighted to speak. But their utmost 
promise was half the kingdom, and their king- 
doms were earthly, bounded and unsubstantial, 
and their pompous generosity often but the 
flourishing rhetoric of lust, pride and wine. 

But Jesus puts no limit to His offers. Ask, 
it shall be given you. Ask, and ye shall re- 
ceive, that your joy may be full. Whatsoever 

1 Esther, v. 6. 



190 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. 1 In 
Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge. 2 All power is given . unto 
Him in heaven and in earth. 3 He is the head 
of all power. 4 All things were created by 
Him and for Him. 5 In Him dwelleth all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily. 8 His word 
can open heaven to the vilest sinner : yea, His 
smile can make a heaven in the saddest heart. 
A crust from Him is a feast, and the feast 
which He shall spread in heaven for His saints 
shall banquet the soul through Eternity. He 
is Heir of all things, 7 and, at the believing call 
of the meanest beggar, He will make that beg- 
gar a joint-heir with Him/ to an inheritance 
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away 9 — an exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. 10 When we are Christ's Christ is ours ; 
and then all things are ours — apostles, Scrip- 
tures, dispensations, ordinances, life and death, 
this world and the next, things present and 

1 Mat., vii. 7 ; John, xvi. 24; xiv. 13. 2 Col, ii. 3. 

8 Mat., xxviii. 18. * Col., ii. 10. 5 Col., i. 16. 

c Col., ii. 9. 7 Heb., i. 2. 8 R om>j v iii. 1*7. 

8 1 Pet, i. 4. 10 2 Cor., iv. 17. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 191 

things to come ; all are ours. 1 Well might 
the Apostle count all things loss for Christ. 2 
Such loss is infinite gain. With the Lord 
Jesus Christ, afflictions are blessings, shame 
is honor, sickness is health, and death is life 
for evermore ; out of weakness we are made 
strong, 8 in solitude we have the best compa- 
ny; our poverty turns to the true riches, our 
crosses to the sweetest comforts ; nature gives 
way to grace, and grace issues in eternal glory. 

II. Let us also admire the freeness of Christ's 
offers to lost sinners. The freeness of the 
offer springs from the fulness of the grace. 
" What wilt thou ? ? ' Choose for thyself, Bar- 
timeus. If thou dost not carrv awav a noble 
gift, it is thine own fault, /do not set bounds 
to thy desires. The treasure is infinite, and 
thou hast it all to choose from. 

The Spirit of the Lord is not straitened, 
and if we are, it is in ourselves. 3 The Lord's 
hand is not shortened, neither is His ear heavy; 
but our iniquities 4 — ah, there is the trouble ! 
And no sin hides God's face sooner, or behind 

1 1 Cor., iii. 21-23. 2 Phil., iii. T. 3 Heb.. xi. 34. 

s Mia, ii. 7 ; 2 Cor., yi. 12. 4 Is., lix. 1, 2. 



192 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

a darker cloud, than our unbelief. God's 
grace is always larger than man's desire, and 
freer than his faith. 1 "We continually need 
His exhortation to Israel, Open thy mouth 
wide and I will fill it. 2 One prayer should be 
ever on our lips, Lord, increase our faith ! 3 If 
this day our fleece is dry, it is not because 
there is no dew in heaven, nor because none 
fell last night. - If we take little pitchers to 
the well, we shall carry little water away. 
Though the golden bowl be full of golden 
oil, the lamp will burn dim, if the golden 
pipe be narrow or choked. 5 The ocean itself 
can pour but a scanty stream through a slen- 
der channel. And when sinners cry, I have 
no grace, it is because unbelief has shut up 
their bosoms. Or when the people of God 
cry, My leanness ! my leanness ! 6 it is because 
their narrow faith suffers them only to taste 
where they might drink — only to snatch 
crumbs with the dogs, while they might sit 
down with the children at the table, and feast 
on all the savory things with which Christ 
spreads His board. 

1 Eph., iii. 20. 2 Ps. lxxxi. 10. 3 Luke, xvii. 5. 

* Judges, vi. 40. 6 Zech., iv. 2, 12. 6 Is., xxiv. 16. 



BLIND BAETIMEUS. 193 

1 Whosoever' and t whatsoever' are two pre- 
cious words often in the mouth, of Christ. 
Whosoever will may come. 1 Whatsoever ye 
shall ask in my name, that will I do. 2 ' Whoso- 
ever' is on the outside of the gate, and lets in 
all who choose. ' Whatsoever' is on the in- 
side, and gives those who enter the free range 
of all the region and treasury of grace. ' Who- 
soever' makes salvation free, ' Whatsoever' 
makes it full. 

III. See how Christ's grace condescends to 
every soul's peculiar need. He will suit His 
granting to our asking. To every soul He 
says, " What wilt thou V 

It is marvellous and beautiful to observe 
how various are the voices of free grace. " I 
am thirsty," says one. "Come to the waters," 
she cries. 3 "I am hungry," says another. 
" Then eat ye that which is good," she says, 
" and let your soul delight itself in fatness." 4 
"But I am poor, and have nothing to buy 
with." "Come, buy wine and milk without 
money, and without price." 6 " We are weary," 

1 Rev., xxii. 1*7 ; John, vii. 37. 2 John, xiv. 13. 

3 Is., lv.l. ' *Is., lv. 2. sis., lv. 1. 

•17 



194 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

sigh the laborers in the sun-beaten fields. 
" Come unto me/ 7 breathes her answer like a 
breeze from the waters, " and I will give you 
rest." 1 " Oast thy burden on the Lord and He 
will sustain thee/' 2 she whispers to the pilgrim 
ready to faint on the highway. " Behold the 
Fountain/' she cries to the guilty, " the Foun- 
tain opened for sin and uncleanness." 3 To the 
lost she cries, l( I am the Way /' to the igno- 
rant, "I am the Truth/' to the dying, "I 
am the Life." 4 How large her welcome to the 
sinner, how soothing her consolations to the 
mourner, how inspiring her tones to him that 
is faint of heart ! There is no disease for 
which she has not a remedy, no want for 
which she has not a supply ; and every one 
who applies to her shall confess at length, " It 
is enough ; I am blessed as if all the methods 
and riches of grace were for me alone !" 

IV. This question teaches that, though Christ 
knows what we want and what He will do, He 
will have us express our wants. 

Prayer is not giving information to God; 

■ Mat, xL 28. 3 Zech., xiii. 1. 

2 Ps.lv. 22. 4 J hn,xiv.6. 



BLIND BAETI^IEUS. 195 

that His Omniscience does not need i 1 nor does 
it change His will ; that His Immutability 
cannot suffer. 2 It does not awaken His grace, 
for it is from everlasting ; nor increase it, for 
it is infinite. But it opens a way for grace to 
flow according to its own eternal plan. It is 
faith's answer to Christ's question, " What wilt 
thou?" It lives only as grace quickens it, and 
speaks only as grace teaches it. There is no 
true prayer till God pours out His Holy Spirit 
— the Spirit of grace and supplications. 3 He 
is first the Spirit of grace, implanting holy 
affections, and then the Spirit of supplications, 
turning these affections into earnest desires, 
which breathe from the heart in prayer, even 
as the same Spirit helpeth our infirmities. 4 

Through all the cold, dark night the petals 
cf the flower were shut. So the sun found it, 
and poured his rays upon it, till its heart felt 
the warmth. Then it yearned to be filled 
with these pleasant beams, and opened its 
bosom to drink them in. And so it is with 
man's prayer and God's grace. 

1 Mat, vi. 8. 3 Zech., xii. 10. 

2 James, L It. 4 Rom., yiii. 26. 



196 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

" The blind man said unto Him, Lord, that 
I might receive my sight I" How prompt and 
to the point is this answer. Let sinners and 
saints learn from it to distinguish among their 
wants, and keep their greatest needs upper- 
most. Bartimeus lacked many things, and 
Christ's question has given him a wide range, 
but we hear only, " My sight ! my sight I" 

How pointless are the prayers we often hear. 
They scatter weakly over the whole ground. 
They have no aim and do no execution. It 
may be a time of declension or revival, a day 
of thanksgiving or fasting, it may be family 
worship or a Church-business meeting — it 
matters not ; you shall hear pretty much the 
same prayer. And if you come back five 
years after, you shall find the good man still 
going over his old beat, as if the church and 
the world and he had made no progress, and 
suffered no change. 

If we w r ould pray well, we must have some- 
thing to pray for — something we really crave. 
We must know our wants, feel our wants, ex- 
press our wants. We must have " an errand 
at the Throne." I learned that expression 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 197 

from a pious old slave. He was asked the 
secret of the fervor and spirit with which 
he always prayed. " 0," said he, " I always 
have an errand at the Throne, and then I just 
tell the Lord what I come for, and wait for an 
answer." Thus too shall we wait for an an- 
swer. Suppose Bartimeus, after kneeling in 
the dust, and raising his bitter cry, " Lord, 
that I might receive my sight," had then 
turned from Christ and said, " Wei], I have 
prayed; now I will beg a little;" and so, ris- 
ing from his knees, he goes begging through 
the whole crowd. Would he not deserve that 
the insulted Saviour should spurn his prayer, 
and seal his blindness to him for ever ? But 
w r hat else do we, when after the false fervors 
of our shallow prayers, we dry our eyes, and 
go wandering after every earthly gain and 
pleasure ? when we do not watch for an an- 
swer and wait for its coming? Even the 
sportsman, who cares not for his game, fol- 
lows the arrow with his eye, till he sees it 
strike. But how many never cast a second 
glance after a prayer which has left their lips ! 
But Bartimeus did not, could not, turn 
17* 



198 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

away from Christ. If his lips do not still cry, 
"My sight! my sight!" a mightier prayer 
than lips can utter is going forth from his 
heart. You may see it in the whole attitude 
— the clasped hands, the out-stretched neck, 
the up-turned face in a very agonj of long- 
ing, the panting breast, beaten inwardly by 
the tumultuous heart, the sightless balls " roll- 
ing in vain" to find the day, and straining 
toward Jesus, as if they would force a path- 
way for light ! 

Not long " in vain," blind man, not long ! 
The morning cometh. The Sun is about to 
rise upon thee with healing in His wings I 1 

i Mai., iv. 2. 




VIII. 

u So Jesus had compassion, and touched his eyes, and said 
unto him, Receive thy sight : go thy way : thy faith hath 
saved thee." 

Jesus had compassion ;" surely not 
then for the first time, but then it 
was more manifest — its proofs were 
given. There was fragrance in the 
alabaster box before it was broken by 
the violence of love, but then its ointment 
poured forth, and its precious odors filled 
the room. 1 Such holy violence there is in 
prayer, and so God's treasured blessings are 
obtained. Christ's secret pity begets our 
petitions, which then His open compassion 
accepts and crowns. Jesus loved Martha and 
her sister and Lazarus, when far away; but 
when He stood at the grave He wept. 2 And 
we may believe that, whenever the sad fruits 
of sin were thus before Him, His face gave 

1 Mark, xiv. 3. 2 John, xi. 5, 35. 



200 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

token of His heart. Then the love which 
brought Him to die, that He might redeem, 
would stir more mightily within His soul, and 
overflow in looks and words and deeds of 
pity. It was at such a moment that Matthew 
was moved to make the record, "Jesus had 
compassion." 

" And touched his eyes." This was not of 
necessity, as if His blessing could not flow 
without a medium, but in lowliness and kind- 
ness. 

He could have healed with a word merely, 
or, if He had pleased, without a word, and far 
off as well as near. Bat He generally chose 
some outward instrumentality. He put clay 
on the eyes of the man blind from his birth, 
and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. 1 
He had the stone taken from the sepulchre of 
Lazarus before He cried " Come forth !" 2 He 
multiplied the loaves and fishes already at 
hand, instead of astonishing the multitude by 
a pure creation. 3 

His lowly spirit is seen in this; for thus 
His miracles were shorn of some of the rays 

1 John, ix. 6, 1. 2 John, xi. 39. 3 John, vi. 11. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 201 

most dazzling to sense. He remembered that 
though He was the Fellow of Jehovah, 1 He 
had now become His Servant, and He dealt 
prudently. 2 Though He was over all, God 
blessed for ever, He was now manifest in the 
flesh/ and, as became Him, He veiled His 
uncreated splendor, and modestly wrought His 
glorious works. 

But while there was the hiding of His 
power 4 from the multitude, He the more re- 
vealed His kindness to His patients. When 
the leper found that Christ dreaded no pollu- 
tion, even ceremonial, from his touch ; 5 when 
the deaf man, who could not hear His words, 
felt His fingers in his ears ; 6 when the poor 
woman, whom Satan had kept so cruelly bent 
for eighteen years, felt the hands of One 
mightier than the old Tyrant, laid lovingly 
upon her ; 7 doubtless their very flesh thrilled 
at the touch, and their faith was made strong 
to believe all that He had promised. 

Who does not envy Bartimeus that gentle 

2 Zech., xiii. 1. 2 is., Hi. 13. 3 R m., ix. 5 ; 1 Tim., hi 16. 
4 Hab., iii. 4. 5 Mark, i. 41. * Mark, vil 33. 
7 Luke, xiil 13, 16. 



202 BLIND BABTIMEUS. 

resting of the fingers of Jesus on his eyes ? 
Eather let us strive to feel His blessed Spirit 
in our hearts, and we shall taste a sweetness 
which will leave no room for envy. 

" And said, Eeceive thy sight." An echo 
from within the Veil ! " Lord, that I might 
receive my sight I" cried the suppliant with- 
out. " Eeceive thy sight I" answers the Sov- 
ereign within. Weak and tremulous, with 
its burden of anguish, is the voice from the 
dust. Clear and joyous, with power and 
blessing, is the Voice from the Throne. I 
call that goodly music, friends! The 
Eternal Spirit is its Author. He searcheth 
all things, even the deep things of God, 1 and 
finding there what the Father designs to give, 
He teaches us to desire and ask accordingly. 
His intercession within us is a according to 
God," says the Apostle; that is, " according 
to the will of God," rightly supply the trans- 
lators. 2 And so, if Christ suits His granting 
to our asking, it is because the Spirit has first 
shaped our asking to His granting. The pur- 
pose of grace is the foundation of the prayer 

1 1 Cor., ii. 10. 2 Rom., viii. 21. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 203 

of faith. Eternal Grace is the mould into 
which faith is cast. Therefore there is har- 
mony between faith and grace. " Grace crowns 
what grace begins." 

Oh, to hear more of that music! If all 
sinners and all saints would thus cry together 
to heaven, our earth would hear such voices 
ringing in the air above it, as if the heavenly 
host had again come down, harping and prais* 
ing with the notes of " Peace," and " Glory," 
as of old above the plains of Bethlehem. 1 

" Go thy way." There is but one word in 
the Greek for these three. It is a mere form- 
ula of dismission in peace. 

" Thy faith hath saved thee." In our Eng- 
lish Bibles we read this expression in Luke, 
but in Mark, " Thy faith hath made thee 
w r hole." Both answer, however, to one phrase 
in the original, and should not differ in the 
translation. Yet there is little to choose be- 
tween them. l Save' is the exact rendering of 
the Greek word, but ' making whole' is one 
form of saving. There are many kinds and 
degrees of salvation, even as the evils vary 

1 Luke, ii. 13, 14. 



204 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

from which we need deliverance. This man's 
malady was physical, and he was saved by the 
healing of his flesh. If this was all, the more 
general word, l save,' would here take its spe- 
cial meaning, \ to make whole.' If, however, 
he was also, up to this moment, an unpar- 
doned sinner, he needed a great spiritual de- 
liverance and healing. And if this too was 
granted as his eyes were opened, then he was 
'made whole' in the highest sense, saved 
wholly and for ever from the double curse 
under which he suffered. 

However this may have been, it is enough 
for us that his salvation was by his faith. God 
has linked faith and salvation together by 
more than " hooks of steel," even by His un- 
changeable decree. No decrees of God are 
more certain than these ; He that believeth 
shall he saved, and, He that believeth not 
shall be damned. 1 He that believeth is passed 
already from death to life, 2 while he that be- 
lieveth not is condemned already. 3 The mo- 
ment of faith is the moment of stepping from 
the region of the curse to the region of the 

i Mark, xvi. 16. 2 John, v. 24. s John, iii. 18. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 205 

blessing. The region of unbelief is black 
with God's frown, and filled with, plagues and 
wrath ; but the region of faith is as the floor 
of heaven for brightness. Christ's righteous- 
ness shelters it, the graces of the Spirit beau- 
tify it, and the eternal smile of God comforts 
and glorifies it. These regions may be near 
together and touch like circles; and while a 
man is stepping from one to the other, he may 
feel both joy and anguish ; — Lord I believe ! — 
help Thou mine unbelief I 1 

Unbelief is a devil. He was born in hell 
and reigns there. With one hand he ever keeps 
his hold on hell, while with the other he has 
seized the earth and wrenched it from its 
sphere, and he is always striving to drag it 
down into his own blackness and ruin. But 
the hand of faith takes hold of heaven. What 
wonder then, that our poor world ever trem- 
bles and wavers so, in the struggle of these 
mighty powers ? 

And thus it is that " faith saves." There 
was nothing in this blind man's soul that 
could open his eyes, but through grace there 

1 Mark, ix. 24. 
IS 



206 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

was something in him that could take hold of 
Christ. 

And so " faith saves" and grace saves; 1 
faith as the instrument, and grace as the di- 
vine efficiency ; faith the channel, and grace 
the heavenly stream ; faith the finger that 
touches the garment's fringe, and grace the 
virtue that pours from the Saviour's heart.' 2 
Faith cannot scale the dreadful precipice from 
•which nature has fallen, but it can lay hold 
on the rope which grace has let down even 
into its hands from the top, and which it will 
draw up again with- all the burden faith can 
bind to it. And this is all the mystery of 
faith's saving, Christ reaches down from 
heaven, and faith reaches up from earth, and 
each hand grasps the other ; one in weakness, 
the other in power. Yea, the hand of faith is 
often but a poor, benumbed hand, stretched 
out in anguish from the dark flood where the 
soul is sinking. 

Neither faith nor grace saves alone ; grace 
will not, faith cannot. Therefore is salvation 
by faith, and salvation by grace. Yet grace 

1 Eph., ii. 5. 2 Luke, viii. 44, 46. 



BLLN T D BARTIMEUS. 207 

lias the highest place. When brought to- 
gether, grace is the efficiency and faith the 
medium for its flow ; saved, says Paul, by 
grace through faith. 1 And even faith is of 
grace. Salvation, (or the promise which con- 
tains it,) says Paul again, is of faith, that it 
might be of grace, and to the end, he argues, 
that it may be sure. 2 That all may be sure, 
all must be given. Whatever is of me is 
uncertain ; whatever is of God cannot fail. 
Therefore my faith, which receives salvation, 
is not left to be my work ; it is one of the 
fruits of the operation of God. Thus, while 
there must be faith, there will be, if there is 
grace. And so it turns out, after all, that 
salvation is all of grace. Blessed be God for 
that ! Of myself I had no more power to be- 
lieve than to love, or be holy, or clothe my- 
self with righteousness and walk into heaven. 
For my carnal mind was enmity against God. 
It was not subject to the law of God, nor, in- 
deed, could it be. 3 But God, who is rich in 
mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved 
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath 
quickened us together with Christ. 4 
1 Eph., ii. 8. 2 Rom., iv. 16. 3 Rom., yiii. 1. 4 Eph., ii 4, 5. 



IX. 

" Immediately lie received his sight." 

|q^) K these words we reach, that point in 
this history where all its lines of inter- 
est meet — -that wonderful moment when 
fthe power of Jesus wrought miracu- 
lously on the eyes of Bartimeus, and he 
was blind no more. 

How much was crowded into that moment ! 
The accomplished purpose of loving-kindness, 
and the answered prayer of misery ; the true 
Light shining, and the darkness not failing, 
now, to comprehend it j 1 the Saviour's power 
and grace victorious, and the helpless sinner 
the subject of a change so immediate, so amaz- 
ing and so blessed, that from this moment he 
rejoiced to be bound in the free captivity of 
Jesus ; while so clear was the shining of Deity 
in all that was done, that not only was the 
Son of Man glorified thereby ; but the beams 

1 John, i. 5. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 209 

shot far up and rested on the invisible Throne. 
For " Bartimeus followed Jesus in the way, 
glorifying God, and all the people, when they 
saw it, gave praise unto God." 

Nor shall we, I trust, be able to refrain 
from c glorifying 7 with Bartimeus, and 4 prais- 
ing' with the multitude ; saying, Surely this 
is fruit worthy of the Tree of Life, on whose 
boughs it shall for ever hang, mirrored by the 
Eiver of God and admired by all who sing of 
the work and death of Jesus. 

Oh for a breath upon my soul from that 
eternal shore, that I may not utterly fail in 
speaking of this gracious mystery ! 

L What, then, does this healing stand for 
in the higher, spiritual world ? 

Surely, nothing less than Eegeneration — 
the new birth of the soul. Of the many 
images employed by the Holy Ghost, to set 
forth our natural state, perhaps none is more 
frequent than blindness. Darkness is ever the 
chosen symbol of the kingdom of Satan, and 
light of the Kingdom of God. Darkness, 
corruption and death are used interchange- 
ably, and so are light, purity and life. Satan 
18* 



210 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

is the Prince of Darkness, his dwelling is 
under darkness, 1 his power is to .blind all who 
follow him, 2 and they too are at last cast into 
outer darkness, 3 a land of darkness, as dark- 
ness itself, where even the light is as dark- 
ness. 4 But God is light, and in Him is no 
darkness at all. 5 He is the Father of lights. 
He dwelleth in the light which no man can 
approach unto. 6 His children are children of 
light. 7 They walk in the light, even as He is 
the light/ and are themselves light in the Lord. 9 
Christ's mission, therefore, is often set forth as 
an opening of the eyes of the blind. 10 He 
came that they which see not, might see. 11 

Most naturally therefore is the new birth 
described as a transition from darkness to 
light, a translation from the kingdom of Satan 
to the Kingdom of God's dear Son. 12 Thus 
Paul sets the natural and gracious states of 
the Ephesians in vivid contrast; Ye were 
some time darkness, but now are ye light in 



1 Jude, 6. 2 2 Cor., iv. 4. 3 Mat., xxii. 13. 

4 Job, x. 22. 5 1 John, i. 5. 6 1 Tim., vi. 16. 

* 1 Thes., v. 5. 8 1 John, i. 1. 9 Eph., v. 8. 

10 Is., xlil 7. " John, ix. 39. 12 Col., i. 13. 



BLIND BARTBIEUS. 211 

the Lord. 1 Thus too, Christ connects the 
symbol with its reality, in sending Paul to 
the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and turn 
them from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan unto God. 2 

The suitableness of these symbols needs no 
vindication. Every heart feels their fitness. 
They have gone into all languages and all 
mythologies. I have forgotten whose thought- 
it is, that no man ever set forth purity or 
blessedness, truth, glory or God, under the 
image of darkness, nor could light ever have 
seemed the fit image of evil or death. 

By Christ's constant miracles of healing the 
blind, and by the constant use of them in set- 
ting forth the mystery of regeneration, the 
Holy Ghost teaches us three important lessons, 

1. That the new birth is from God. If 
the harp be broken, the hand of the maker 
may repair it, and wake the chords again to 
their old power and sweetness. There is hope 
of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout 
again, and that the tender branch thereof will 
not cease. Though the root thereof wax old 

1 Eph., v. 8. , * Acts, xxvi. IS. 



212 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the 
ground, yet through the scent of water it will 
bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. 1 

But who can restore the shattered crystal, 
so that the sunbeams shall stream through it 
without finding a flaw, and flash, once more, 
as of old, in the ever-changing play of their 
splendor ? 

And who can open the eyes of the blind ? 
Who can restore to that most lustrous and pre- 
cious of gems, its expression and power, when 
distorted and blotted by disease or violence ? 
Who shall open again those delicate pathways 
for the light of two worlds — the outer world 
shining in and filling the soul with images of 
beauty, and that inner world shining out in 
ioy, love and thankfulness? Surely none but 
the Maker of this curious frame, who, when 
sin had so cruelly marred it, came in compas- 
sion as infinite as His might, to be Eedeemer 
and Eestorer where He had already been 
Creator. Only He can open the eyes of the 
blind. The power of God is in that work. 

But if a man die shall he live again T Oh, 

1 Job, xiv. 1-9. 2 Job, xiv. 14. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 218 

if the soul be dead, dead in guilt and corrup- 
tion and the curse of Almighty God, can it 
revive ? Yes, thanks be to God, by reason of 
the working of His mighty power, which He 
wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from 
the dead, 1 (after He had been delivered for our 
offences, 2 ) we, also, may be quickened, who 
were dead in trespasses and sins, and children 
of wrath, we may be quickened together with 
Christ : for we are His workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works. 3 

Then let men beware how they disparage 
God^s glory in the regeneration of human 
souls. If it was blasphemy without forgive- 
ness to ascribe the miracles of Jesus to the 
working of Satan,* their sin is not easily mea- 
sured, who ascribe this higher work on man's 
ruined soul, of which those bodily cures were 
but types, to any power but that of God. Not 
by eloquence, not by ordinances, not by the 
souPs own resolution, not by God's holy truth 
itself, without the added and immediate power 



■ Eph., i. 19, 20. s Eph., ii 1, 3, 5, 10. 

2 Rom., iv. 25. 4 Mark, ui 22-30. 



214 . BLIND BABTIMEUS. 

of the Holy Ghost, is the soul born again. 
To Him then be the undivided glory ! 

2. In the light of this miracle we also learn 
that, whatever activities the sinner may put 
forth before and after his regeneration in the 
great change he is passive. Under the mov- 
ing of the Spirit, he may, like Bartimeus, cry 
for the blessing before it comes ; like him he 
may rejoice when it does come, and be ever 
after constrained to a grateful holiness ; but in 
effecting the change, like Bartimeus, he does, 
simply, nothing. 

All the agonies of the blind man, all his 
tears and cries, all his rolling and straining 
his sightless balls, had just nothing at all to 
do with the act of restoration. That was 
Christ's alone. Only His activity availed or 
even entered there. The blind man was the 
passive recipient of the miraculous power. 

And so in the new birth ; — " born of God," l 
tells it all. It is the " unparticipated work 7 ' 2 
of the Holy Ghost. 

In this, regeneration is distinguished from 
conversion. God turns the man, but the man, 

1 John, i. 13. 2 Professor Butler. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 215 

so moved, turns with his whole heart. It is 
the day of God's great " power," but also of 
the sinner's great " willingness." 1 " Conver- 
sion," sa) r s Fisher, in his Catechism, "is the 
spiritual motion of the whole man toward God 
in Christ, as the immediate effect of the real 
and supernatural change that is wrought in 
regeneration." The fire which the sun has 
kindled mounts toward it at once. The kin- 
dling of the heavenly flame is regeneration ; 
its upward motion, conversion. Eegeneration 
is the divine cause, conversion the sure effect. 
Where there is the grace of life, there will be 
a life of grace. 

3. Light did not open Bartimeus's eyes, nor 
does truth alone regenerate the sinner. Pour- 
ing light on blind eyes will not heal them. 
Flashing truth, even God's glorious truth, on 
the sinner's mind will not regenerate him. 
Bartimeus was as blind at noon as at mid- 
night. The sinner is as blind under the blaze 
of the gospel, as amid the glooms of heathen- 
ism. The sinner hates the light. It is not a 
question of less or more with him, he hates 
1 Psalm ex. 3. 



216 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

the very element. He hates God, and God is 
light. Truth is but the image of God, and is 
hated where He is hated. The carnal mind 
is enmity against God, say the Scriptures. 1 
Then follows by necessity the declaration, 
that it is not subject to the law of God, neither 
indeed can be. How strong the statements ! 
How dreadful their connection! Absolute 
enmity against God, and necessary insubor- 
dination to His truth I Therefore before God 
or His holy law can be loved, the carnality of 
the soul must be destroyed, and that is the 
work of the Holy Ghost alone. Whatever 
part the truth may play, it cannot create. 
Only God does that. 

II. Let me now speak of the greatness and 
glory of this change. I again speak simply 
of the bodily change wrought by the miracle 
in Bartimeus. 

The bursting forth again of the sun from 
the clouds after many days of storm is as 
nothing to it, though a hundred landscapes 
are flooded with the splendor, and birds break 
out in song, and innumerable hearts leap up 

1 Eom^ viii. T. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 217 

to hail the clear heavens. Our thoughts rather 
go back to the day when God said, Let there 
be light, 1 and at once disclosed, to the gaze of 
the jubilant angels, a new world glowing with 
His unshadowed smile. This is the truer 
comparison. For here, too, in the breast of 
this suffering beggar, was a world of sensation 
and consciousness, a world even in its night 
and ruin nobler than earth or sun ; for what 
is matter, in quantities however vast, and 
forms however excellent, to an immortal 
soul ? Darkness has, indeed, long wrapped it, 
and wisdom been " from one entrance quite 
shut out." But now the same mighty word 
has spoken, and this living world is suddenly 
lighted through all its wondering, grateful 
depths. Think ye the angels had no song for 
this also ? 

Then who shall dare speak lightly of that 
work, in which God, who commanded the 
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
our hearts, to give us the light of the knowl- 
edge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ? 2 Are we not using language most 

1 Gen. ; i. 3. 3 2 Cor., iv. 6. 

19 



218 BLISTD BARTIMEUS. 

accurately, when we call the new birth The 
Great Change? Is it not an event to be look- 
ed upon with astonishment ? ever to be spoken 
of with reverence? Is it not a thing for ever- 
lasting amazement, that a guilty wretch, dead 
under the curse of God, should receive a com- 
munication of the divine life, be made a par- 
taker of the divine nature, 1 and be adopted 
into the divine family? that he should be 
lifted from the dust of death to sit with princes 
on the heavenly hill ? that from the pollutions 
of a hellish slavery, he should be exalted to 
the liberties and dignities, to the sanctity and 
blessedness of sonship with the Most High ? 
Yea, that he should be a joint-heir with 
Christ,* and sit with Him in His Throne, 3 and 
reign with Him, in indissoluble union with 
Him, and participation with Him evermore 
in the honors and offices of His everlasting 
kingdom and priesthood? 4 Oh, if there were 
but one instance of this, would it not be for 
the glory of God and the wonder of heaven 
for ever ? And shall it be less, when we have 

1 2 Pet, i. 4. 2 Rom., viii. 11. 

3 Rev., iii. 21. 4 Rev., i. 6 ; v. 10. 



BLIND BARTIAIEUS. 219 

but to lift up our eyes, and lo, a great multitude 
which no man can number, of all nations, 
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stand- 
ing before the throne, and before the Lamb ? ' 

Well may the Apostle of love cry out with 
an admiration which even he cannot all ex- 
press, Behold what manner of love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called the sons of God ! And as his soul 
kindles along the line of our coming glory, 
exclaim again, confessing too how it passeth 
understanding, Beloved, now are we the sons 
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be ; but we know that when He shall 
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see 
Him as He is ! 2 

Well may the saints, for ever beholding, in 
the Lamb that was slain, the ground of their 
acceptance and the image of their sonship, 
sing in song for ever new, Unto Him that hath 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and 
dominion for ever and ever ! 3 

1 Rev., vii. 9. 2 1 John, Hi. 1, 2. 3 R eVf; i 5 ? q. 



220 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

And shall we not bless, with equal praise, 
the good Spirit of our God, of whom we were 
born again/ in whose leading we have proof 
of our sonship, 2 and by whose effectual work- 
ing we shall be changed into the very image 
of the glory for which we sigh ? 3 — oh, shall 
we not bless Him, who is at once the Spirit 
of grace/ of life, 5 of adoption/ of help/ of 
prayer/ of liberty, 8 of comfort/ of sanctifica- 
tion/ of access/ 1 of glory and of God? 12 Can 
we praise with a too boundless admiration 
that work on which the energies of the whole 
Godhead are expended, and by which the Per- 
fections of Father, Son and Holy Ghost are 
chiefly seen for ever? Neander does not 
speak too strongly when he calls ".the com- 
munication of the life of God to men," "the 
greatest of all miracles, the essence and aim of 
all, the standing miracle of all ages." 

III. As u Bartimeus immediately received 
his sight," so in regeneration, the great change 



1 John, iii. 5. 2 Rom., viii. 14. 3 2 Cor., iii. 18. 

4 Zech., xii. 10. 5 Rom., viii. 2. 6 Rom., viii. 15. 

7 Rom.,- viii. 26. 8 2 Cor., iii. 17. 9 John. xiv. 16, 17. 

10 1 Cor., vi. 11. u Epk., ii. 18. 19 1 Pet,, iv. 14.. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 221 

is instantaneous. There is some one moment 
when the vision of the blind man, and the new 
life of the sinner begins. It may be feeble, but 
it has begun, and for the faintest beginning the 
creative act is needed. The case of that other 
blind man, who, at first, saw men as trees 
walking, 1 is not an illustration of gradual re- 
generation. Whenever it could be said that 
he saw, no matter how dimly, the great change 
was implied. However confused and weak 
his vision, it was real. Before he was blind ; 
now he sees. His whole state is changed, and 
is to be described by directly opposite expres- 
sions. Then he saw nothing, he could not 
see ; now he can and does see. No farther 
change in the degree of his power to see can 
equal this, that from utter blindness, he should 
see at all. 

And so in spiritual things ; the kingdoms of 
darkness and light have no neutral frontier 
where their dominions mingle. 2 " They are in 
deadliest opposition and sharpest contrast. 
One cannot be the subject of Christ and of 
Satan at the same time, nor in neutrality, sub- 

» Mark, viiL 24. 3 Mat, vi. 24 

19* 



222 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

ject to neither. He must be Tinder either 
wrath or grace, either dead or alive. None 
can be both dead and alive ; none can be nei- 
ther dead nor alive. 

But lest any draw a mistaken and discour- 
aging inference, the case of that other blind 
man 1 is to be carefully regarded. Men may 
come slowly to their evidences of regenera- 
tion. Mists and darkness may still wrap the 
new creation. The sinner often frames for 
himself an ideal of conversion which leads 
to disappointment. His own imagination and 
the glowing accounts he has sometimes heard, 
cast a golden flush over his expected expe- 
rience. But the Spirit sometimes grants only 
an experience of such a plain and common- 
place character, that for a long time it never 
occurs to the sinner that this is the work for 
which he has waited in such high anticipation. 
In many cases, especially where grace reigns 
in early life, the Spirit's work, in its various 
stages from conviction to conscious enjoyment 
of pardoning love, is quiet, gradual, and al- 
most imperceptible. At other times the Sov- 

1 Mark, viii. 22-26. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 223 

ereign Spirit may direct the sinner's eyes, at 
the moment of his illumination, chiefly to the 
guilt of his past life, or downward into the 
abysses of his own heart, or to the terrible 
majesty and exactions of God's holy law, and 
so fill him with renewed anguish. Comfort is 
not always the immediate result of the new 
birth. The sound of weeping may be the 
first that is heard. 

Sometimes, too, the gloom disperses yery 
slowly, and many a blacker cloud sweeps 
through it, till the soul is ready to despair. 
But in none of these cases is the soul left 
without sufficient attainable evidence that it 
is born of God. 

Many are the souls who must say with holy 
Joseph Fletcher of Stepney, " it has often been 
the cause of much distress that I could not 
particularize the place, the time, the means of 
my conversion." 

To know these things would indeed be 
pleasant, but let none be too anxious about 
them. Let them give all diligence to make 
their calling and election sure, 1 but be also 

1 2 Peter, i. 10. 



224 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

careful not to waste time and comfort in these 
fruitless inquiries, and embarrass the great 
question by that which does not concern it. 
The main thing for every sinner is, to be 
able on good ground, to say, Whereas I was 
blind, now I see. 1 If he can say this, and 
have the witness of the Spirit to its truth, 2 it 
matters little whether he is able to add, On 
such a day, in such a place, by such and such 
means, my eyes were opened. 

A good ship has been broken by the tem- 
pest. Mast and rudder and compass, all are 
gone. The storm is over, but the wreck is 
drifting away blindly through night and fog. 
At leogth all is still, and the wondering sailors 
wait for the day. Tardily and uncertainly it. 
dawns, and as the heavy mists slowly dissolve, 
all eyes are busy trying to discover where 
they are. At length one descries a cliff which 
seems familiar, another a pier in which he can 
hardly be mistaken, a third the old church 
spire, under whose shadow his mother is sleep- 
ing, and now, as the sun breaks forth, they all 
cry out in joyful assurance that they are in the 

1 John, ix. 25. 2 Rom., viii. 16. 



BLIXD BARTIMEUS. 225 

desired haven ! Mysteriously and without 
their aid, the Euler of wind and wave has 
brought them there, and all are exulting in 
the great deliverance. 

Nay, shall we say not all? Can you im- 
agine one poor melancholy man refusing to 
rejoice, and even doubting these evidences, 
because he cannot tell the hour and angle of 
his arrival, nor whether he was borne chiefly 
by currents of air or ocean ? 

IV. On the blessedness of this change in 
Bartimeus — image of the spiritual blessedness 
of him who is first tasting that the Lord is 
gracious 1 — I can hardly bring myself to com- 
ment. The words of the evangelist, ''imme- 
diately he received his sight/' are the calm 
record of rapture beyond conception. Well 
does Addison call our sight the most perfect 
and most delightful of all our senses. 2 Well 
does Solomon exclaim, The light of the eyes 
rejoiceth the heart, 3 and cry out again, like 
one on whom a morning without clouds was 
dawning, 4 Truly the light is sweet, and a 

1 1 Pet., ii. 3. 2 Spectator, No. 411. 

s Prov., xv. 30. 4 2 Sam., xxiii. 4. 



226 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the 
sun ! 1 Is it not beautiful that the eyes of a 
babe are scarcely opened on this world, before 
they follow the light and gaze on it as an 
absorbing wonder? After its needful nur- 
ture, its first joy is light — soft nurture, too, 
and stimulus, is it not? — for its little new- 
born soul. And why is it that we gaze uncon- 
sciously, but inevitably, on the ray that steals 
to us through chink or crevice, as we sit in 
reverie in a darkened room? Turn away 
as often and as resolutely as we will, if we 
forget again, the strong instinct of nature pre- 
vails, and our eyes fasten again upon the 
light. And who has not felt his soul bliss- 
fully swimming on the glories which pour, in 
amber and gold and crimson, from the setting 
sun? Though we have seen it a thousand 
times, we seek it again, and gaze, with ador- 
ing thankfulness, on the boundless canvas of 
transparent ether, on which the hand of God 
is spreading the colors of heaven. Our sense 
of joy is fresher, if not deeper, when even for 
a night the sight has been shadowed, and the 
1 EccL xl T. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 227 

eyes open on the advancing splendors of 
morning. And when after long imprisonment 
in the chamber of suffering, we go forth again, 
leaning, perhaps, on the arm of a congenial 
friend, to breathe once more the fresh air, and 
rejoice in the measureless freedom of nature, 
she seems to have clothed her green fields and 
forests, her blue skies and waters, in a brighter 
pomp of " summer bravery" than ever before, 
and the strange beauty fills and almost op- 
presses the soul. In what affecting terms does 
Dr. Kane describe the almost adoring rapture 
with which the return of the first sunshine 
was hailed, after the long horror of an Arctic 
night — the frozen blackness of months' dura- 
tion, when he eagerly climbed the icy hills 
" to get the luxury of basking in its bright- 
ness," and made the grateful record, " To-day, 
blessed be the Great Author of light ! I have 
once more looked upon the sun ;" while his 
poor men, sick, mutilated, broken-hearted, and 
ready to die, crawled painfully from their dark 
berths to look upon his healing beams ; when 
il every thing seemed superlative lustre and 



228 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

unsurpassable glory," when they could not 
refrain ; they " oversaw the light." 1 

But what was this, what were all these, to 
the wonder and joy of Bartimeus's first vision 
of the mighty works of God ? They already 
had the sense of sight, and had enjoyed many 
pleasureable exercises of it. To him the very 
sense was new, unimagined before. And now, 
at the word of Christ, the glorious element 
comes streaming, suddenly and for the first 
time, and in its fulness, with thrills of incon- 
ceivable bliss, upon the sense and soul buried 
from birth in utter darkness. Surely, on that 
day the light of the moon was as the light of 
the sun, and the light of the sun as the light 
of seven days. 2 

And what did he see first ? Jesus, his best 
friend, his Saviour! Jesus, chiefest of ten 
thousand and altogether lovely; 3 enviable 
lot ! The first image which the light of heaven 
formed in his soul was the image of that dear 
face ; O rich recompense for the long pains of 
blindness ! The first employment of his eyes 

1 Arctic Expedition. Vol. II. 2 Is., xxx. 26. 

3 Song, v. 10. 



BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 229 

was in beholding Him that opened them ; 
blessed consecration of his new powers and 
pleasures! He is still on his knees ; fixed by 
the blessed vision where he had lately sunk 
in anguish and darkness. The eyes of Jesus 
are looking kindly down into his eyes, dilated 
and radiant with ecstacy. Gaze on, old man ! 
Thou canst not look too ardently or too long. 
Never can thine eyes have nobler or purer 
joy on earth. TTell mayst thou forget even 
sun and moon while He is before thee. In 
heaven itself all eyes are turned to Him. In 
heaven they need no sun nor moon, for He, 
the Brightness of the Father's glory, is the 
light thereof. 1 

But is the joy which attends spiritual illu- 
mination answerable to this? Not always (we 
have seen) as the immediate result. But it is 
attainable, and very soon the believer ought 
to have it, and, unless through ignorance, 
error, or guilt, will have it and that abun- 
dantly. 

That this is so, the Scriptures every where 
prove, by their command which make joy in 

1 Rev., xxi. 23 ; Heb., i. 3. 
20 



230 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

the Lord a duty ;* by their frequent and most 
hearty exhortations, especially in the Psalms, 
— that book of religious experience ; by their 
abounding declarations as to the blessedness 
of the righteous; 3 and by their exceeding 
great and precious promises, 4 full of the very 
cordial of heaven. 5 

Moreover the Bible is the sole Eevealer of a 
conception of joy, in comparison with which 
every other idea of it, wherever found,'is poor, 
earthly, and already darkened with the taint 
of death. It is a conception in which every 
best element of every earthly delight, by what- 
" ever name known — all the serenity of peace, 
all the exhilaration of hope, all the satisfaction 
of fruition, all the liveliness # and sparkle of 
joy, all the mellower radiance of gladness, all 
the flush and bound of exultation, all the 
thrill and movement of rapture, are wrought 
into one surpassing combination, w T hich chas- 
tened by holiness, softened by charity, dig- 
nified by immortality and transfused by the 

1 Phil., iv. 4. 2 Ps. xxxiii. 1. 3 p s . j. ; Mat., v. 3-12. 

4 2 Pet., i. 4. 5 Ps. ciii. Many pages of references 

would not exhaust the Scriptures embraced under theso 
heads. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 231 

beams of the all-encircling glory of the God- 
head, is Blessedness. 

It elevates the soul to know of such a state as 
possible for itself; it purifies it to hope for it ; 
strengthens it to strive after it. What then must 
it be to taste it, as we may on earth, and drink 
it to the full, as we shall for ever in heaven ! 

Blessedness begins when the divine life has 
consciously begun, and progresses just as it 
is vigorous and unobstructed. For pleasure 
must spring from the flow of healthy life. If 
the life is from God, the pleasure must be 
godlike. As God is the Living One and the 
Blessed One, just as we participate in His life, 
we must also share His blessedness. 

The soul is supremely blessed when it rests 
perfectly in God. That rest begins when He 
is seen by faith reconciled in Jesus Christ. 
It is consummated when faith is lost in sight. 
It begins on earth. It is perfected in heaven. 
But let it not be thought that either here or 
there it is a sluggish or even passive rest. It 
is inevitably active from the unceasing stir of 
energies for ever stimulated, for ever unex- 
hausted. Yet indeed, there is a blessed pas- 



232 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

siveness too. Ever desiring, it is ever satisfied; 
and so, looking and loving, enlarging and fill- 
ing, blessed and blessing, it goes on for ever. 

This is the Bible idea of happiness. It is 
the perennial flow of the fountain into which 
the currents of the Infinite Ocean are pour- 
ing ; the eternal going forth to God in love, ot 
the life which He hath implanted in grace, and 
which He ever nourishes by perpetual com- 
munion in glory. 

It has two elements, no more. It receives, 
it gives. If it cannot give, or will not, re- 
ceiving is in vain. The active is a higher ele- 
ment than the passive. It is more blessed, says 
Christ, to give than to receive. 1 Yet is the 
passive first in necessity and order. Were 
there no receiving, there could be no giving. 

Finally, if the new relations of a spiritually 
enlightened and renewed soul be considered, 
we cannot doubt the reality and greatness of 
its blessedness, both in the life which now is, 
and that which is to come. 2 The believer has 
been freed from the curse of the broken law, 
the wrath of God, the bondage of Satan and 

1 Acts, xx. 35. 2 1 Tim., iv. 8. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 233 

the doom of hell. God lias, in free grace, 
pardoned all his sins and accepted him as 
righteous in His sight; for the righteousness 
of Christ imputed to him. He has been re- 
ceived into the number, and has a right to 
all the privileges of the sons of God. He is 
renewed in the whole man after the image 
of God, and enabled more and more to die 
unto sin, and live unto righteousness. He 
may in this life partake in the unspeakable 
benefits of assurance of God's love, peace of 
conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of 
grace and perseverance therein to the end. He 
knows that his soul shall at death be made 
perfect in holiness, and immediately pass into 
glory ; while his body, being still united to 
Christ, shall rest in its grave till the resurrec- 
tion ; and that then, being raised up in glory, 
he shall be openly acknowledged and ac- 
quitted in the day of judgment, and made 
perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God 
to all eternity. 

With these words, sublime as they are well 
known, I conclude what I had to say of the 
blessedness of the new birth. 
20* 




X. 

" And followed Jesus in the way." 

p^j HOUGH Jesus stood still at the beg- 
gar's call, He may stay no longer. 



This work is finished, and His might- 
ier work on Calvary urges Him on. 

But what shall Bartimeus do? Must 
they part so soon ? Are his eyes no 
more to see His Lord? Have they been 
opened that he may know his gracious Friend, 
and taste the brief bliss of one moment's gaze, 
and then bid Him farewell ? He would still 
see indeed, but the day would lack the warmth 
and glory it had before. Aye, his Sun would 
be set, and all that remained would be but 
as the stars gleaming coldly on the darkened 
earth. It cannot be. As Jesus turns to de- 
part, he springs from the dust, and follows 
Him in the way. 

Draw me, cries the Bride in the Song, as 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 235 

soon as she catches sight of the royal chariot 
which bears her approaching Lord, Draw me, 
and we will run after Thee. 1 One glimpse of 
His beauty ravishes her soul with holy ad- 
miration. She would fly to His presence, and 
there she would abide. If He stands, like 
Mary, she would sit at His feet. If He re- 
moves, she would run after Him. 

This simple phrase, " following Jesus," is 
comprehensive of the whole Christian life, and 
the many examples in the New Testament of 
following Him bodily are given, that we may 
understand what it is to follow Him spirit- 
ually. Christ has left us an example, says 
Peter, that we should follow His steps. 2 
Archbishop Leighton, commenting on this 
passage, well reminds us that the word l ex- 
ample' is 'copy' in the original — such a copy 
as children write after; whereof, he adds, 
" every step of His is a letter." Oh that the 
Holy Spirit may teach us to dip our pens in 
His dying love, and write after the blessed 
lines with a skilful hand ! 

Whoever has looked unto Jesus as the 

1 Song, i. 4. 2 1 Peter, ii. 21. 



236 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Author of his faith, will look unto Him as the 
Finisher. 1 If the ej T es be opened truly to see 
Him, the heart will be opened truly to love 
Him ; and when the heart is thus enlarged, 
like David, we will run in the way of His 
commandments. 2 This is the test of disciple- 
ship ; If any man serve Me, let him follow 
Me. 3 It is a mark found in all the saints; 
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, 
and they follow Me. 4 The Psalmist speaks 
not for himself alone, but for all sound be- 
lievers, when he cries, My soul followeth hard 
after Thee. 5 It was the salvation of Caleb 
and Joshua in the day of wrath, and is re- 
corded as their glory for ever ; that they 
wholly followed the Lord their God. 6 They 
found it, as all true pilgrims shall, the only t 
path of safety, and the only one that, coming 
out of Egypt, stops not short of Canaan. To 
follow Jesus is the antidote of all error, doubt 
and despondency; it ensures our soundness 
in doctrine, our growth in grace, and our 
comforting, perpetual, and life-giving illumi- 

i Heb., xii. 2. 2 Ps. cxix. 32. s John, xii. 26. 4 John, x. 27. 
6 Psalm lxiii. 8. 6 Num., xxxii. 11, 12 ; Josh., xiv. 6-14. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 237 

nation. All this is in the words of Christ ; I 
am the Light of the world : He that folio wetli 
Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 
the light of life. 1 And here, too, we find the 
high, eternal service and blessedness of the 
saints. It is the glory and joy of the one 
hundred and forty and four thousand, re- 
deemed from the earth as the first fruits unto 
God and the Lamb, that they follow the Lamb 
whithersoever He goeth. 2 

O friends, let us follow Him whithersoever 
He goeth. Let us follow Him "in the way" 
— the way laid clown in His Word, the way 
opened by His Providence, the way of which 
the Spirit whispers, This is the way, walk ye 
in it, 3 It may lead thee into great and sore 
troubles ; but when thou passest through the 
waters, He will be with thee, and through the 
rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when 
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not 
be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle 
upon thee. 4 It may be a way of which we can- 
not see the end, naj~, in which we must walk 

1 John, viii. 12. 2 Rev., xiv. 4. 

3 Is., xxx. 21. 4 i Sfj xiiil 2. 



238 BLIND BAKTIMEUS. 

softly, 1 groping and wondering. Let us be 
of good heart, and still hope in God ;• for we 
shall yet praise Him for the help of His coun- 
tenance. At evening- time, it shall be light. 2 . 

Sometimes His way is in the sea, and His 
path in the great waters, and His footsteps are 
not known. Then the voice of His thunder 
is in the heavens, the waters are afraid, the 
depths also are troubled. But it is only 
His enemies who need be in fear and dread. 
These tremendous preparations may, indeed, 
intimidate even His own people for a while, 
and they may tremble as they find that His 
awful pathway must be theirs. But soon 
even the women of Israel are exulting, with 
timbrel and dance, on the shore of liberty, in 
the glorious triumphing of their God. 3 

The path of many of us may lie much in 
the Yalley of Humiliation — a life of obscurity, 
poverty and lowly toil. We may be Christ's 
hidden ones 4 all our days. Or, we may be 
brought down to dwell here, after having 
walked in high places. Now, the descent to 

1 Is., xxxviii. 15. 2 Ps. xlii. 5; Zech., xiv. 1. 

8 Ps. lxxvii. 16-20; Ex., 17. 20, 21. 4 Ps. lxxxiii. 3. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 239 

this valley, says Bunyan, is " steep," and "the 
way slippery ;" and who bath not found it so? 
Yet it was among its green meadows " beauti- 
ful with lilies," that Mr. Great-heart and the 
pilgrims heard the cheerful song of the Shep- 
herd's boy, who wore so much of " the herb 
called heart's-ease in his bosom," And here 
11 our Lord formerly had His country-house ; 
He loved much to be here ; He loved also to 
walk in these meadows, and He found the air 
was pleasant." 

Yes, humble pilgrims ! be sure ye shall find 
your Lord's foot-prints set thickly here. There 
you may see the stable in which He was born, 1 
the humble home in which He lived, 2 the 
shop in which He toiled, 8 the mountain-side 
where He prayed through all the long night. 4 
See the paths going all over the valley, all 
worn by His feet, and stopping so often at the 
abodes of the suffering and poor. 5 There He 
sat and wept over the guilty and lost, 6 and 
there He took the little babes and blessed 

i Luke, ii. 7. a Luke, ii. 39. 51. 

3 Mark, vi. 3. * Luke, vi. 12. 

* Mat., iv. 23 ; xi. 5. • Luke, xix. 41 



240 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

them. 1 See, too, the place of His anguish, of 
His trial, of His bloody death ! 2 And there 
is His tomb, but with the stone rolled away, 
and empty now ! 3 And there is the upper 
chamber, where He breathed that peace which 
still hovers over this valley like an air of 
balm. 4 And there He lifted up His hands and 
ascended to His Father and your Father, His 
God and your God. 5 

So thy way, believer, must lie by the Cross 
and the grave. But beyond the grave is the 
resurrection, and then the crown of life for ever. 
Fear not then to follow the Good Shepherd. 
Let the Twenty- third Psalm teach thee, in a 
gracious summary, how and where He will 
lead thee, and what He will do for thee by the 
way ; and I think thou wilt be ready to say 
with Mr. Standfast, as he stood in the Eiver of 
death, " Wherever I have seen the print of 
His shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to 
set my foot too." Look, then, evermore to 
Jesus, thy Precursor, and therefore Exemplar 

1 Mark, x. 13-16. 2 Mat, xxvi. 36, 57 ; xxvii. 2, 33. 

3 Mat, xxviii. 2, 6. 4 John, xx. 19. 

6 John, xx. 17 ; Luke, xxiv. 50. 



BLIND BARTI3IEUS. 241 

in all the way of faith and obedience/ and 
cry unto Him, even as He cried, in the days of 
His flesh, 2 to His Father, Thon wilt show me 
the path of life ! In Thy presence is fulness 
of joy ; at Thy right hand are pleasures for 



evermore 



13 



1 Heb., xil 2, 3. 2 Heb. ? v. 1. s Psalm xvi. 11. 

21 



XL 




" Glorifying God." 

>HEN his eyes found their noblest 
joy, his tongue was put to its no- 
blest use. It is the glory of the 
tongue that it can glorify God. 1 
Filled with irrepressible gladness, 
he broke forth in loud thanksgivings and 
praises. He began to sing in the ways of the 
Lord 2 as soon as he entered them. He had 
reached the fourth and brightest link of that 
gracious succession revealed in Psalm 1. 15 ; 
trouble leading to prayer, prayer issuing in de- 
liverance, and deliverance in glorifying. As he 
looked around on the goodly frame of nature, 
and felt the streams of God's gracious benig- 
nity flowing into his consciousness, he was con- 
strained to 

"bear some humble part 
In that immortal song," 

which is sung in that world, in which both 
1 James, hi. 9. 2 Psalm cxxxviil 5. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 243 

creation and redemption are glorified; Great 
and marvellous are Thy Works, Lord God 
Almighty ! Just and true are Thy Ways, 
Thou King of saints ! Who shall not fear 
Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? 1 

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me, says 
God. 2 There were three ways in which Bar- 
timeus glorified Him, and none can glorify 
Him in any other way ; — in thought, word and 
deed ; by his heart's secret gladness and ador- 
ation, by his audible and public praise, and by 
his following Jesus in the way. The first was 
the fruit of the soul, the second the fruit of 
the lips, the third the fruit of the life. The 
first was visible to God alone, the second and 
third were manifest to men. The first was 
the hidden spring of both the others ; for the 
thanksgiving of the soul is the soul of thanks- 
giving, and where it is wanting, the profes- 
sions of the mouth and the works of the life 
are dead and offensive ; — the loathsome offer- 
ing of hypocrisy. But if the lips and life 
have not their offerings also, the praise of 
the soul is without its needful outlets and 

i Rev., xv. 3, 4. 2 p sa Im 1. 23. 



244 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

evidences, and like faith without works, is 
dead, being alone. 1 If through, sloth or cow- 
ardice in speaking and acting for God, a bushel 
is put over the light, 2 it will not only be 
concealed but smothered. The true light, 
the light of God's kindling, will, indeed, ac- 
cording to the proverb, burn through the 
bushel. 3 If there is abundance in the heart, 
the mouth will speak. 4 Art thou still dumb ? 
Then thy heart's fancied abundance is empti- 
ness. Eeligion not in the soul is mockery. 
Eeligion in the soul only is impossibility. We 
must first be light, ourselves lighted from the 
Sun of Righteousness, and then our light 
must shine before men, that they may see our 
good works. So only can we lead others to 
glorify our Father who is in heaven, and there- 
by ourselves most effectually glorify Him. 5 

Dr. Doddridge once exerted himself to pro- 
cure the pardon of a man condemned to die. 
When he succeeded and hastened to the cell 
with the glad news, and the prison door was 
flung open, the poor man cast himself to the 

1 James, ii. 17. 2 Mat, v. 15. 

s Stier. Words of the Lord Jesus. 4 Mat, xii. 34* 

e Mat, v. 14-16. 



BLIND BAETIMEUS. 215 

earth, and clasping the feet of his deliverer, 
exclaimed, " Every drop of my blood thanks 
yon, for you have saved them all !" 

Such full-voiced expression of the heart's 
gratitude was heard from the men also whom 
Christ delivered from their plagues. The 
dumb began to sing, the lame to leap, and 
all to testify, in some open, lively way, how 
thankful they were for such mercies. Only 
once do we hear that mournful question and 
complaint, "Were there not ten cleansed ? but 
where are the nine? There are not found 
that returned to give glory to God, save this 
stranger ! 1 

The piety of the primitive church was of 
the same cheerful, out-spoken type. And 
when we go back to the more ancient ages, 
and climb the hill of Zion, what bursts of 
jubilant music greet us ! What ringing of 
harps, what pealing of organs, with the voice 
of psalms, like the swell of the sea ! Hearken : 
Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I 
will declare what He hath done for my soul. 3 
I will bless the Lord at all times ; His praise 

1 Luke, xvii. 17, 18. » Psalm lxvi. 16. 

21* 



246 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

shall continually be in my mouth. magnify 
the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name 
together ! l sing unto the Lord a new song ! 
Sing unto the Lord ! Bless His name ! 2 For 
it is a good thing to give thanks unto the 
Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, 
most High ! for it is pleasant, and praise is 
comely. 3 Let the children of Zion be joyful 
in their King ! 4 

Alas, how many who profess to be Zion's 
children in our day, seem even ashamed of 
their King ! They have no glad story to tell 
of His dealings with their souls, no harp to 
sweep in His praise, no apostrophes to heaven 
and earth, to field and flood and the saints of 
God, challenging them to mingle their voices 
in celebrating redeeming grace. 

But why do I speak of harps and apostro- 
phes ? There are men and women who pro- 
fess to have been healed by the Lord Jesus of 
their soul's deadly malady, and yet can hard- 
ly bring themselves to speak a word in His 
praise in any company. Is He evil-spoken of? 

1 Ps. xxxiv. 1, 3. 2 Ps. xcvi. 1 ? 2. 

a Ps. xcii. 1 ; cxlvii. 1. 4 Ps. cxlix. 2. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 247 

They will not defend Him. Is He well- 
spoken of? They have no word to add. Is 
He not spoken of at all ? He never will be, 
if they must begin. The beauty, excellency 
and glory of His person, offices and work ; 
all His condescension, grace and tenderness; 
all the events of His life, all the sufferings of 
His death ; all His exaltation, reign and sec- 
ond coming, seem not to be enough to loosen 
their tongues, or give them anything at all 
to say. 

Nay r more : they see their blind neighbors 
groping their way down to endless night, but 
cannot go to them and recommend the Hea- 
venly Physician. If an earthly physician is 
needed, they are at once voluble and bold. 
They can tell you how kind he is, what cures 
he has wrought, and where he is to be found. 
But let the soul be in danger, and they are 
dumb. 

Shall I go farther? Yes, there are fathers 
and mothers, who are ashamed to tell the 
story of their healing to their own poor, blind 
sons and daughters, who have inherited from 
them the dreadful woe. They pity them ; 



248 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

they know they will perish if they come not 
to Christ; they will be glad if "the minister" 
will speak to them ; but they cannot They 
are ashamed to be heard by their own families 
speaking to Jesus. Even in the sanctuary of 
home they dare not call their offspring about 
them, and kneeling before His feet, bless Him, 
in simplest words, for His mercy, and then 
cry, a Lord, look now upon these poor blind 
children, and heal them I" 

Can we wonder that God withholds the 
joy of His salvation 1 from such base cow- 
ardice ? Oh, let us wonder that He withholds 
His wrath ! Blessed Jesus ; if Thou didst die 
for me, shall I not live for Thee ? If Thou 
didst suffer for me, shall I not speak for Thee ? 
If Thou wast not ashamed of my shame, shall 
I be ashamed of thy glory ? If my sins once 
laid on Thee, made Thee dumb, like a sheep 
before her shearers, 2 shall not Thy graces 
wrought in me, open my lips that my mouth 
may show forth Thy praise, and my tongue 
sing aloud of Thy righteousness ? 3 

1 Ps. li. 12. 2 Is., liii. 6, 1. 3 Ps. li. 14, 15. 




• XII. 

* And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto 
God" 

SINGLE beam of light becomes a 
star on the bosom of a thousand drops 
of the morning* The song of one is 
followed by the chorus of many. The 
rejoicing of Bartimeus has made the 
highway to Jerusalem like the garden of the 
Lord; joy and gladness are found therein, 
thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 1 Just 
now it was like the valley of Baca, that is, the 
Vale of Tears or Lamentation ; but it has be- 
come a well — a fountain of universal joy. 2 
When God brought David out of the horrible 
pit, out of the miry clay, and set his feet upon 
a rock, and established his goings, then He put 
a new song into his mouth, even praise unto 
our God. And what then ? Did the blessed 
work stand alone? Nay, many saw, and 
feared, and trusted in the Lord. 3 

1 Is., 1L 3. 2 p s# \xxxw. 6. 3 Ps. xl. 1-3. 



250 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

In what mournful contrast was David's ex j 
perience in that saddest year of his life — the 
year of unconfessed guilt and a stupid con- 
science ! He no more drew water with joy 
out of the wells of salvation. 1 Day and night 
God's hand was heavy upon him, and his 
moisture was turned into the drought of sum- 
mer. 2 Eust gathered on his harp-strings, and 
the palace no more resounded with his morn- 
ing and evening song. 

And what was the result ? It was then as 
now. The guilty Christian is the dumb Chris* 
tian, and the dumb Christian is useless. Guilt 
paralyzed his tongue and sealed his lips. He 
could not teach transgressors the ways of 
God, and sinners were no more converted by 
his instrumentality." 

At length the voice of God broke the dis- 
mal silence. By His prophet and His provi- 
dence, 4 He both rebuked and chastened him, 5 
until he came bending and weeping to the 
altar, and laid on it his broken spirit— -that 
ever acceptable sacrifice, yea all sacrifices in 

i Is., xii. 3. 2 Ps. xxxii. 4. 3 Ps. li. 13-15. 

4 2 Sam., xii. 1-23. 5 R e v., iil 19. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 251 

one. 1 In the Fifty-first Psalm you may 
read his confession, and in the Thirty-second 
the history of the whole matter — the guilty 
silence, the sore chastening, the ingenuous 
acknowledgment, the free pardon, and the 
overflowing thankfulness, confidence and joy. 
Nor does he fail to express his assurance that 
the usual result shall follow — that, because of 
his forgiveness and blessedness, so obtained, 
every one that is godly shall be encouraged 
to pray. 

Ebenezer ! Hitherto hath the Lord helped 
us. 2 Let gracious souls, who have fallen and 
been lifted up, who have sinned and found 
pardon, who have wrestled hard and over- 
come, be led to solemn and timely declara- 
tions of their Bedeemer's grace. It is at once 
a debt of love and a deed of mercy. 

" Some forlorn and shipwrecked brother 
Seeing, shall take heart again." 

Blessed Paul says he was before a blas- 
phemer and a persecutor and injurious ; but his 
Lord's grace was abundant ; and it is a faithful 

1 Ps. li. IT. 2 1 Sam., vii. 12, 



252 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners, of whom Paul felt himself to be chief. 
Howbeit, for this cause he obtained mercy, 
that in him first, Jesus Christ might show 
forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them 
which should hereafter believe on Him to 
everlasting life. 1 

This is one great end of a public profession 
of religion. We confess Christ that we may 
commend Him. The Church is a golden 
candlestick, which Christ has set on high to 
give light to a dark world. 2 When a new 
light is kindled, how shall it not covet to 
be set there too? Christ has commanded it, 
and can we refuse? He means it for beauty 
and for order ; for our honor and defence ; for 
a guide to the lost, an encouragement to the 
fearful, a testimony and rebuke to the carnal ; 
for the comfort of the faithful; and for His 
own glory. 

Yet let us not exalt our grateful telling 
above His gracious working. If the multi- 
tude had not seen what Jesus did, little would 

1 1 Tim., i. 13-16. a Rev., L 20. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 253 

they have minded what Bartimeus said. 
Their song began quicker and rose higher 
for his joyful key-note; still, it was of the 
miracle they sung. They waited only for 
proof that he actually saw, and when his 
rapturous outburst gave that, their hearts 
flowed over. And so our professions are 
nothing, except as true displays of Christ's 
work. Their virtue is in their verity — theii 
transparency, suffering the grace and power 
of God to shine through them. They bring 
glory to God as they are clear instances, and 
so proofs, of His Almighty, healing love. 

How profoundly interesting and suggestive 
is this whole scene ! Jesus has just wrought 
a work in which He has destroyed one of the 
works of the devil, redeemed a wretched man 
from his captivity and torment, and thereby 
brought glory to the Father ; and now we 
behold Him serenely walking at the head of a 
vast multitude, who fill the air with acclama- 
tions at the gracious deed. 

It is an epitome of His work on earth, and 
a foreshowing of His reward in heaven. 
22 



254 BLIND BAETIMEUS. 

He came down from heaven, not to do His 
own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. 1 
This was His meat, — that without which He 
could not live. 2 He sought not His own 
glory. 3 His Incarnation was for three great 
ends — the destruction of the devil and his 
works; 4 the salvation of the lost; 6 and the 
manifestation of the Father. 6 But the last 
was the great end, to which both of the others 
were subordinate. His whole life, His whole 
death breathed out this prayer, Father, glorify 
Thy name ! He Himself announces this as 
the sum of all He had done on earth. It was 
on the night of His betrayal, but a few days 
after this triumphal march from Jericho, but 
a few hours before His death. Then the 
thirty-three years of His life on earth passed 
in solemn review before Him. They were 
indeed covered with obloquy and ignominy, 
but they presented nothing for regret. No re- 
pentance mingled with the contemplation, but 
rather, calm, deep, sublime satisfaction. Sur- 

1 John, vi. ?8. 2 John, iv. 34. 

3 John, viii. 50. 4 Heb., ii. 14; 1 John, iii. 8. 

* Mat., xviii. 11. • John, i. 18 ; xii. 27,- 28. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 255 

rounded by chosen witnesses of His work and 
representatives of His Church, He lifted up 
His eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, I have 
glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished 
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. 1 It 
was for this He labored, for this He suffered ; 
for this He saved, for this He destroyed. Zeal 
for His Father's glory absorbed Him, 2 con- 
sumed Him, 3 and yet sustained Him. 4 And it 
was only when this end was accomplished, as 
far as was possible in His estate of humilia- 
tion, that He thought of His own glory, and 
prayed to be restored to it — His essential, 
eternal, incommunicable glory, that which He 
veiled so deeply when He undertook His 
lowly errand. And now, Father, He prays, 
glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self, with 
the glory which I had with Thee before the 
world was ! 5 what a life was His ! a whole 
consecration, all worship, all praise, one golden 
censer, full of divinest incense, ever burn- 
ing and sending forth its fragrant clouds to 
heaven ! 

1 John, xviL 4. 2 John, iy. 34 3 John, ii 17. 

* John, xii. 27, 28. • John, xvii. 5. 



256 BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Finally, from this highway to Jerusalem 
and the hallelujahs of its festal multitudes, 
our thoughts are borne forward and upward. 

" There all the heavenly hosts are seen, 
In shining ranks they move!" 

Bartimeus is there. Yea, every one of all 
that countless throng was once a poor Bar- 
timeus, blind, wretched, ruined, the helpless 
captive of Satan, marred and accursed, until 
Jesus passed by to pity and to heal. And so 
each one is in turn the subject of the song and 
joy of all the rest. 

The multitude is there. Now there is no 
chiding nor strife among them. They are 
without spot, or wrinkle or any such thing. 1 
They " shine in the light of God/' and have 
been made perfect in love. 2 They are all 
clothed in bright raiment of holiness and 
righteousness, and can look full upon the sun- 
shine of the Throne. They wear crowns upon 
their heads, 3 and have harps and palms in their 
hands. 4 This is the sacramental host of God's 

1 Eph., v. 21. 2 i j hn, iv. 18. 

a 1 Pet, v. 4. * Rev., vii. 9 ; xiv. 2. 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 



257 



elect, the general assembly and church of the 
first born. 1 An innumerable company of an- 
gels 2 is also with them, rejoicing in their joy, 
helping them to praise. 

And Jesus is there. What would all this 
be without Him? Nay, without Him, none 
of this could be. The music would hush and 
the light go out. The crown would fall from 
the head, and the gold become dim. 3 Silence, 
coldness and death would cover the heavenly 
plains. But there He is, walking at the head 
of all the glorious company. He has loved 
them with an everlasting love, 4 and redeemed 
them at an infinite cost, 5 and now He sees of 
the travail of His soul and is satisfied. 6 It is 
finished! He presents them before His Fa- 
ther; " Behold I, and the children which God 
hath given Me !" 7 

11 long expected Day begin I" 



■ Heb., xii. 23. 

3 Lam., iv. 1. 

5 1 Pet, i. 18, 19. 



2 Heb., xii. 22. 
4 Jer., xxxi 3. 
* Isa., liil 11. 



Heb., ii 13. 



THE END. 




